A Soldier's Heart
by Lady of Zylon
Summary: After her last camp was attacked, Caterina Miller was left to survive the zombie apocalypse all on her own, until she meets former Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes and agrees to go with him to Atlanta to search for his family. What happens when they join up with another group of survivors residing in a camp just outside of the city? Eventual DarylXOC
1. Introduction

If anyone had told Caterina Miller that she would be fighting for her life outside the Iraq war, she would have just assumed that they were being ridiculous and moved on. Not even in her wildest dreams would she have believed that, one day, she would be fending off the walking dead. Sure, she enjoyed the occasional zombie movie, but she never believed that the dead would actually start rising from their graves outside of a Hollywood set.

Then there was the outbreak.

Now she was on her own, wandering from town to town, looking for supplies to keep herself alive. She originally was with a group of about five others. They were camped outside of Winder, Georgia in an abandoned farmhouse. It had been a good set up. There was a pure water source, plenty of food, decent shelter…

But then the walkers came, and they were overrun.

Walkers—that was what her group had come to call those who had succumbed to the disease. It seemed to make everyone a bit more comfortable rather than calling them "zombies." Caterina felt that it was an appropriate name. After the disease burned you out, your body would rise and return to walk the Earth once more. She'd seen it happen quite a few times. It was a horrible way to go, right up there next to being ripped apart by walkers.

It was several weeks after the epidemic started before she met another survivor. She had been resting on the roof of an abandoned 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle, reading _The Raven_ for what had to be the sixteenth time over a span of one month. Edgar Allan Poe was one of her favorite authors of all time, the other being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Caterina had always had a thing for mysteries, ever since she was little. She grew up wanting to be in law enforcement, but instead she ended up in the U.S. Military. Who knew?

"Hello?"

Her head snapped up at the voice.

A man was approaching her from up the road. He looked to be in his mid- to late-thirties. He was of average build and height with perfectly cropped chestnut hair and a slight 5 o'clock shadow. She couldn't quite see his eyes but, from where she sat, they appeared blue-gray. He wore a Sheriff's deputy uniform, complete with patrol hat.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," the man apologized, raising his hands to show that he meant no harm. "I was just wonderin' if you needed a ride somewhere."

Caterina didn't answer. Instead, she closed her book and tucked it away in the pocket of her army cargo pants, all the while keeping her eyes trained on the man. She wasn't comforted at all by the fact that he was wearing a police uniform. She knew to be cautious of people, even those who seemed harmless. After all, looks could be deceiving.

"My name's Rick," the man offered. "Rick Grimes. I'm not gonna hurt you."

"I know," she retorted confidently.

Caterina grabbed the Barnett Jackal crossbow next to her. She found it on her excavation through an Academy Sports and Outdoors. So far, it was her favorite weapon. It was silent, so she didn't have to worry about making much noise and drawing any walkers to her. Also, the scope was accurate. The first time she tried it out, she managed to take down a walker from two hundred yards.

She stood up and leaped down from the roof.

"Where did you come from?" she asked as she took a few steps closer to the man.

"Up the road a ways," he replied. "I'm headin' up to Atlanta to look for my family."

Caterina nodded in acknowledgment and shifted anxiously on her feet. It had been a while since she had interacted with another living human. She didn't quite know what to do. But she couldn't blame that entirely on the world having gone to shit. She had never really been the sociable type. That was one of the reasons why she ended up in the army instead of in law enforcement, she supposed.

"Anyone else with you?" Rick inquired.

"No," she answered, "not for a while now."

He nodded. "Well, if you have nowhere else to go, you're welcome to ride with me up to Atlanta."

Caterina hesitated. After everything she'd seen so far, she wasn't too keen on joining up with another survivor. You could never tell who was trustworthy and who would just as easily kill you for your equipment as they would kill a walker. Not to mention that she'd been avoiding the larger cities ever since the start of this apocalypse. It stood to reason that the places with larger populations would have the most walkers.

But, then again, this Rick character didn't seem to pose much of a threat. And the CDC was in Atlanta. If there was even a fraction of the government left, they would be protecting the CDC at all costs.

"All right," she finally agreed. "Just let me grab my pack."

Rick nodded again and watched as she disappeared behind the Chevelle. She reappeared a few seconds later with a military pack hanging off one shoulder. She followed him down the road to where a patrol car was parked. He went to the driver's side and stood outside of the car, waiting for her to get in before sliding in himself.

"How long has it been since you ate?" Caterina asked once they were on the move.

"A couple days, I guess. Why?"

She brought her pack up into her lap and started rummaging through one of the side pockets. After a moment, she pulled out a bag of Jack Link's organic beef jerky. She tore open the bag before holding it out to him, so he wouldn't have to take both hands off the wheel.

Rick glanced over and laughed in delight. "Where did you get these?" he asked as he fished a cut out of the bag.

"I managed to amass a decent amount of food rummaging through abandoned cars and supermarkets," Caterina explained. "Some of the first things I grabbed were foods high in protein. I figured, if I was going to be fighting, I would need it."

"Well, thank you for sharin' what food you have, Miss…" He trailed off, realizing that he didn't know her name.

"Miller. Caterina Miller. You can just call me Cat."

"Thank you, Cat."

There was an extended silence between them. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but it did set Caterina on edge. She didn't know too much about the guy. All she really knew was that he appeared to be a Sheriff's Deputy, and that he was on his way to Atlanta to find his family, whom he had somehow gotten separated from.

"What's your family like?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"My family?" Rick reiterated, surprised at her sudden inquiry. "Well, they're…they're wonderful. That's the only way I know to describe 'em. My wife, Lori, she…" He trailed off again. Caterina looked over at him and saw the pained look on his face. She surmised that not knowing the fate of his family was taking a toll.

"I'm sure your family is just fine," Caterina assured him.

"I sure hope so," he said, his voice thick with emotion. He cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly in his seat, obviously not very comfortable with being seen in a vulnerable moment by someone that he'd only just met. "What about you?" he asked, trying to shit the attention away from himself. "Where's your family?"

Caterina hesitated, not sure if she should tell him or just change the subject. She never was one to talk about stuff like that. She'd been reserved for as long as she could remember. It was hard for her to talk to her own brother about a lot of things most of the time. Whenever he wanted to know something, he often had to drag it out of her.

She sighed and leaned back so that her head was pressed against the headrest.

"I haven't seen them in a little over a year," she relented after a long moment, deciding that it would be hypocritical to just brush him off when he'd just responded so openly about his own family—still, that didn't mean she had to tell him everything. "I've been out of the country. I got back just a couple of days before all of this happened." She made a vague gesture out of the window.

"That must've been horrible," Rick acknowledged.

Caterina shrugged. "I'm used to carnage."


	2. Chapter 1

She was staring out of the windshield as they approached what looked to be a car graveyard. There were several cars and trucks laid out on the road in front of them; a few had even somehow been upended. Just beyond them, she could see the roof of a gas station. She guessed that people had gone there in the hopes of getting some gas but had instead found the place overrun.

She looked at Rick as he pulled over next to an overturned sleeper truck.

"We're runnin' low on gas," he explained before climbing out of the car.

Caterina reached down by her legs and grabbed her crossbow before following Rick's example and getting out of the car. Back before this apocalypse started, she would have just let him go off on his own. Now, with everything that had happened, she made sure to keep close to whatever survivor she ended up joining (which she rarely did, since she knew that she couldn't trust very many people). Every day, the number of humans dwindled. It was in her best interest to keep as many people alive as she could.

She stood by the passenger side door while she checked the perimeter, making sure that there weren't any walkers stalking about. Once Rick had come back around the car with a gas can, she followed him down to the gas station, crossbow held at the ready.

The two paused as they reached the side of the road, staring down at the site below them. There was an abandoned camp set up outside of the gas station. From where they stood on top of the hill, she couldn't see any signs of life anywhere within the camp, but that didn't mean that there wasn't anything walking around. Caterina had learned a long time ago that abandoned didn't always mean abandoned.

Rick moved down the side of the hill carefully, and Caterina followed after him.

Caterina gazed around at all the discarded items that littered the campground as she and Rick maneuvered through the maze of cars. Her heart clenched as her eyes spotted the toys lying about. The idea of kids falling victim to all of this made her sick. But it was a way of life now—there was no getting around that.

She stuck close to Rick as they made their way to the gas pumps. He was pretty much leading the way, as she was too busy looking and listening for any walkers. She noticed from the corner of her eye that he had stopped, and she turned to see him staring up at something. She followed his gaze and saw a make-shift sign that had been hung up over the pumps that read "NO GAS."

"Great…" Rick grumbled, running his hand over his face in agitation.

"If you have a hose, we could siphon some," she offered, trying to placate him.

"I didn't think to bring one."

Caterina opened her mouth to offer another solution, but she stopped as her ears picked up what sounded like the shuffling of feet. She exchanged a quick look with Rick. Her grip on her crossbow tautened as she looked around the camp for any sign of movement. When she didn't see anything, she quickly switched tactics and knelt down to conceal herself.

She glanced over to see Rick laying himself out on the pavement to look under a nearby truck. After a moment, he turned his head to look at Caterina and mouthed, "It's a little girl." Before she could stop him, he jumped to his feet and hurried around towards where he'd seen the girl.

"Rick!" she called after him in a hoarse whisper. But he ignored her.

"Little girl?" he called out.

Silently cursing to herself, Caterina moved so that she was kneeling in the aisle between the cars, but she didn't go any further, deciding to let Rick do as he wanted. If he was so certain that this little girl was alive and not a walker, he could find out the truth for himself.

"I'm a policeman. Little girl? Don't be afraid. Okay? Little girl?" There was a pause and, when Rick spoke again, his voice had taken on a tone of horror and disgust. "Oh my God…"

Taking that as her cue, Caterina stood up and darted out from her hiding spot. She spotted the walking corpse of a little blonde girl stumbling towards the two of them, and her heart clenched. Still, she quickly raised her crossbow and aimed around Rick before pulling the trigger. The arrow zipped through the air, past Rick's bicep, and struck the walker in the eye, killing it instantly.

Rick turned quickly to look at Caterina, her unruffled countenance greatly contrasting his clear revulsion, not only at the sight of that little girl reduced to a walking corpse but at having seen her get taken down by an arrow to the eye.

"You shot her…" he stuttered in disbelief.

"It was either that or let her bite you," Caterina defended herself. She brushed past Rick as she moved to stand over the child's body. "I felt shooting her was the better option." After saying a quick prayer for the little girl, she placed her foot on the corpse's shoulder and yanked the arrow out of its eye socket with a sickening squelch.

Rick gagged at this and turned his back on the sight.

Caterina wiped the darkened blood off on her cargo pants before knocking the arrow, in case they ran into any more walkers. She turned back to look at Rick, who was leaning over with his hands on his knees as if he were about to be sick. "You okay?" she asked wearily.

"Yeah, just…just give me a minute."

She stared at Rick's back as he struggled to compose himself.

After a moment, he stood up straight and ran the back of his hand over his mouth, wiping away the sweat that had accumulated over his lip. Without turning to look at Caterina, he muttered, "Let's get back to the car."

"Did you want to see if we could find a hose and siphon some gas?" Caterina asked.

"No," he rebuffed quickly. "No, let's just…let's just get back to the car."

Caterina nodded, understanding that this had been too much for him. While she wondered how he could still be so sensitive to everything after so long, she respected that he was and decided that, from that point onward, she would do her best to keep the gore and violence to a minimum.

"All right. Let's get going then," she suggested.

Rick nodded, and she followed him back to where they had left the patrol car, Caterina all the while keeping an eye out for any more walkers. She slid into the passenger's seat and laid her crossbow across her lap. She watched Rick as he tried to compose himself again. It seemed that he had only managed to compose himself enough to get make it back to the car.

"How long have you been on the road?" Caterina asked, just to satisfy her growing curiosity.

"Not long," Rick admitted. "I, uh…I woke up in the hospital a few days ago."

Well, that made sense. If he'd been in a coma up until this point, he hadn't had to see everything that had happened during those first few weeks. Caterina was pretty sure it had hardened everyone. The only reason it hadn't really had any noticeable effect on her was because, as she'd told Rick before, she was used to carnage.

"Well, I guess all of this must be pretty overwhelming then," she said.

"It was worse when I first woke up. But I met this family—a father and son. They helped me to adjust."

"Where are they now?" Caterina wondered. If he had been with a family up until that point, why wasn't he with them now? She assumed that they hadn't been killed, otherwise Rick would have adopted a troubled tone when he spoke of them. Since he didn't, she could presume that they were still alive.

"We decided to go our separate ways."

* * *

They were able to drive a few more miles before the car engine started sputtering. Rick didn't bother pulling over to the side of the road as he came to a stop. But it wasn't like there would be any traffic any time soon. This epidemic had been going on for months, and so far there was no real end in sight. The number of dead just kept on rising and rising while the number of people alive kept falling.

Rick sighed heavily as he turned off the engine. "Guess we're walkin' from here."

Caterina stepped out of the car, her crossbow hanging at her side carelessly. She reached back inside for her pack. She slid the straps onto her shoulders, knowing that it was important to distribute the weight evenly if she wanted to be able to carry it for an extended time.

While Rick went to the trunk to grab a few things, she looked around for any walkers. They were in the middle of what looked like farm country. There were fields on either side of them, completely bare apart from the grass and crops. It would be easy to spot walkers out there. There was nowhere for them to hide.

Caterina turned as Rick joined her by the car. He had a duffle bag strung over his shoulder and the gas can in one hand. The two exchanged a short look before they started off down the road, side-by-side. They walked for about half a mile before they found a farmhouse a few yards off the road.

"You think anyone's home?" Rick wondered.

"I doubt it. But we might as well go ahead and check before we start pillaging."

Rick nodded in agreement, and Caterina followed him up to the house.

"Hello?" he called out as they approached the farmhouse. Caterina stayed silent, choosing instead to let anyone, or anything, think that there was only one person outside. You never knew what could happen if you approached a random house out in the country, especially with how things were now. It was better if the enemy thought you were just one instead of two. "Police officer out here. Can I borrow some gas?"

When no one answered, he stooped to put down the gas can. He exchanged a cautious look with Caterina before he went up the porch.

While Rick went to check the house, Caterina chose to look around outside for anything useful.

She spotted a rusted van parked underneath an old oak tree. Slipping the strap of her crossbow over her shoulder, she walked over to the van. She opened the driver's side door, not at all surprised that it was unlocked, and slid in to the seat. She checked around for the keys, but came up empty.

"Can't blame a girl for trying," Caterina mumbled to herself as she slipped out of the van. She walked over to where Rick was sitting on the stone bench, looking a bit green in the face. "No good?" she asked, though she could already tell the answer from his slumped shoulders.

"No…" he muttered.

She gazed at Rick sympathetically. From what he'd told her, he hadn't had enough time to get used to all of this. Add to that how much worse everything was now compared to when it first started and she couldn't blame him for his reactions.

Rick ran an anxious hand over his face, clearing his throat. "What about the van? Any luck?"

Caterina glanced back over her shoulder at the van that she'd just checked. "No, the keys weren't in there."

He sighed. "We're gonna have to find sumthin' else then."

She nodded in agreement and started looking around the farm before her eyes fell upon a horse just across the yard, in a fenced area next to the barn. Luckily, there was still enough food out in the cities for the walkers so they hadn't wandered into the country yet. That was probably the only reason the horse was alive now.

Rick noticed Caterina staring off at something. "What is it?" he asked, his mind instantly going to the worse.

"Our something else," she replied evasively. She motioned for Rick to follow her as she started towards the barn where the horse slept. She strapped her crossbow to her back and moved to go inside, her hand hovering over one of the knives strapped to her thighs.

"Cat?"

Caterina stopped and looked back at Rick, who was staring at her worriedly. He obviously didn't understand why she was going into the barn, or why she had put away her crossbow. "We need riding gear," she pointed out. When he just continued to stare at her, Caterina added, "I'll be fine."

Once Rick had nodded his assent, she walked carefully into the open barn. She paused just inside of the entryway and listened for any out of place sounds. After a moment of not hearing anything other than the sound of her own breathing, she walked further inside to search the horse stalls for the riding gear.

The gear was set up on the wall of the first stall, so she grabbed it and went back outside to where she'd left Rick. She paused when she saw Rick leading the horse out of the yard.

Rick looked up and saw her staring at him. "You find the riding gear?" he asked, though the answer was obvious.

"Yeah." Caterina nodded to the horse. "You're pretty good with animals."

"My parents had a horse when I was younger," he explained. "I used to ride him a lot."

"Good. You can help me put this stuff on then," she said. She shoved the bridle into his hands while she went to the horse's side to put on the saddle. Once they had everything in place, Caterina took Rick's duffle bag and put the strap over one shoulder so she could carry it along with her pack.

"You got it?" Rick asked, always the one to check that everything was okay before moving on.

"Yeah, I've got it." She motioned for Rick to come over to her, and she helped him up onto the horse. He got himself settled in before reaching out his hand to Caterina. She grabbed it and allowed him to pull her up behind him. She made sure that everything was secure before wrapping one arm around his waist, so she could use her other hand to hold her crossbow—just in case they ran into any trouble.

"You ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be."

"Just go easy, okay?" he muttered to the horse. "I haven't done this for _years_." He snapped the reins, and the horse bolted off so fast that Caterina had to tighten her one-armed grip on Rick's waist to prevent herself from falling backwards off the saddle. "Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy, boy! Easy!"

* * *

It didn't take them very long to reach the outskirts of Atlanta, especially since the horse had continued to run for a long while. He more than likely hadn't gotten much exercise since this whole apocalypse thing started, so he was probably happy to get out and run. Eventually, he slowed down, and Caterina and Rick were able to ride much more comfortably.

They were walking along the road leading into Atlanta. Caterina was staring over at the endless sea of abandoned cars on their left, all of them leading out of the city. It was a bad omen if she had ever seen one, and she grew up in a very superstitious household so she was always looking out for omens.

"I have a bad feeling about this," she muttered in Rick's ear.

Rick was silent for a moment before snapping the reins again, urging the horse forward.

Caterina kept her eyes and ears open for walkers as they rode cautiously through the city. She gazed into a city bus that looked to have been set on fire as they passed by. There were two decaying bodies inside and, as they passed, she noticed both corpses' heads move. Her hand tautened around her crossbow instinctively.

The horse seemed to see them as well, and it neighed as it stumbled to the side in an attempt to get away.

"Whoa!" Rick cried as he tried to get the horse back under control. "Steady. It's just a few," he said in an attempt to calm the horse down. "Nothin' we can't outrun." He urged the horse to move a bit faster, and they turned onto a pretty much abandoned street.

He pulled the horse to a full stop so they could gather their bearings and find out where they were.

Caterina was looking up and down the street when she heard what sounded like a helicopter in the distance. She used her hand wrapped around Rick's waist to get his attention, tapping him on the stomach three times.

"Yeah?"

"Do you hear that?" she asked.

Rick paused and listened for a moment. "Sounds like a helicopter."

Satisfied now that Rick had heard it as well, Caterina looked up into the sky, searching for the helicopter, but she couldn't see anything. She paused as she turned to face one of the skyscrapers, where she spotted a UH-1 Huey in its reflection. She pointed up to it using the hand holding her crossbow. "There!"

Rick snapped the reins again, and the horse took off in the direction the helicopter was flying. They raced around a corner only for the horse to slide to a sudden halt. Caterina and Rick stared wide-eyed at the street in front of them, as it was crowded with hundreds and hundreds of walkers. The walking corpses turned to face them slowly, not capable to register things as quickly as living humans.

"Oh shit…" Caterina cursed. She nudged Rick in the leg in an attempt to snap him out of his shock. "Go!"

Rick acted immediately and turned the horse around, and the horse rushed back up the street. He steered the horse around another corner, only to find yet another horde waiting for them. Instead of urging Rick to run away again—because it was futile—she tightened her grip on Rick's waist in case the horse started to buck (she knew that it would once it registered the danger).

"Shit…" Rick breathed fearfully.

The horde attacked then, grabbing at the horse and the two humans riding on its back. Caterina instantly jumped into action and swung her crossbow at a few walkers' heads to get them off of her and Rick, all the while trying to keep her grip on Rick's waist as the horse tried to toss them, as Caterina had expected. Eventually, the horde became too much for the horse to stand up against and it was toppled over, knocking Caterina and Rick off onto the pavement as it went. Caterina's pack and Rick's duffle bag fell from her back before she landed, but she did manage to keep her grip on her crossbow.

Caterina sat up quickly and glanced around, looking for a way out (silently thanking her ability to notice every little detail even in panicking situations). She spotted a M1A2 Abrams tank behind them, and a plan came to fruition in her head. She lifted her leg and kicked a nearby walker in the stomach, knocking it onto its back. After checking that there weren't any more walkers close enough to attack, she crawled over to Rick and grabbed his pistol from its holster.

"What're you doin'?" Rick called over the sound of groaning.

"Crawl under the tank!" Caterina ordered as she shot a nearby walker in the head.

"What?"

"Just go!" she snapped. Rick immediately did as she said, and Caterina scrambled under the tank after him, shooting any walker that got too close for comfort. She kept her crossbow in her other hand, in case she ran out of ammunition before they got inside. "Go, move!" she cried when Rick hesitated. She aimed the gun back over her shoulder and shot another walker.

"Oh God…oh God…" Rick muttered as he came to a full stop.

"What is it?"

"There's more in front!"

Caterina cursed to herself and rolled to the side so that she could see past Rick. Just as he'd said, there was another group of walkers crawling under from the front. She hurriedly aimed Rick's gun at them and fired two quick shots, killing two of the undead that had gotten a bit too close to Rick.

She glanced up and saw that the hatch was right above him. She could hear more walkers creeping up behind her, so she aimed over her shoulder again and fired. "Rick!" she called over the sound of gunfire. "Rick, you've got to listen to me! There's an opening right above you! Climb in! Go!"

Rick rolled onto his back to see that she was right, and he quickly climbed into the tank while Caterina fired two mote shots at the walkers approaching from the front. Once Rick was inside, Caterina crawled up to the opening.

"Come on!" Rick called down.

Caterina shot another walker in front of her and rolled onto her back so she was facing the opening. She tossed her crossbow inside with Rick and grabbed the edges of the opening to heave herself up. She felt a walker grab at her leg, and she kicked out, successfully dislodging it.

She pulled herself inside with Rick's help and quickly closed the hatch to prevent anything from following them. She placed her hand on Rick's back and gently led him further into the tank. "Go on…" she muttered as she followed him over to the back of the tank, where a dead soldier was propped up against the wall.

Rick collapsed next to the soldier, with Caterina right next to him.

"Oh…God…" Rick panted, and Caterina couldn't help but agree. Her heart was hammering in her chest from the close encounters, and she could practically feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins even now, when all the excitement was over.

Caterina shifted forward slightly and motioned for Rick to move. "Switch places with me," she ordered him.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

Rick hesitated, but did as she asked. Caterina crawled over Rick as he shifted to the side, away from the soldier. Caterina settle down next to the soldier and grabbed the gun from his holster. The body shifted at her light touch, and she heard that familiar, guttural growl. Without a moment's hesitation, she grabbed a loose arrow from her makeshift quiver and jabbed it into the middle of the soldier's forehead, killing it for the last time.

The two living humans were quite for a long moment as they struggled to relax.

"How did you know about the opening in the bottom of the tank?" Rick asked, breaking the almost silence (the only sound had been their quick and ragged breathing).

"Most tanks have them," Caterina explained. "They're escape hatches, in case the soldiers inside aren't able to use the ones up top." Having just mentioned it, she looked up and saw that the hatch overhead was opened. She set her crossbow and the soldier's gun aside and moved over to the driver's seat.

"Cat?"

Caterina ignored him as she stepped up onto the seat so that she could poke her head out of the hatch. She gazed around at all of the walkers surrounding the tank (most of them were joining in the feeding frenzy where the horse had gone down). Her eyes fell on Rick's bag of guns and her pack on the road by the tank. She contemplated for a moment getting out and grabbing them, but that thought was doused when she noticed a few walkers climbing up onto the tank towards her. She grabbed the cover and quickly closed the hatch before they could get too close.

Now that the crisis had been averted (at least for now), she allowed herself to drop down into the driver's seat with a heavy sigh.

"You okay…?" Rick asked hesitantly. Even though he'd only just met her, he could tell that she wasn't really the type to talk about herself or her feelings. But, in the short amount of time they'd spent together, he'd grown to care for her as a friend after everything they had been through thus far, so he wanted to at least try and get her to talk. He didn't know what it was, but there was something about her that sort of drew him to her.

"I'm fine," Caterina replied. She ran a hand over her face (a sign that she obviously wasn't fine). "I dropped your guns outside."

"We'll worry about that later. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." She allowed her hand to drop into her lap, and she looked over to where she had dropped her crossbow and the soldier's gun. She nodded to the handgun. "Are there any rounds left in there?"

"Uh…" Rick grabbed the gun and ejected the magazine to check. "Yeah, fifteen."

She nodded. "Good."

Caterina leaned back so that she was propped up against the wall of the tank, and she closed her eyes as she tried to come up with some kind of strategy. They couldn't just stay in there. They had to get out, but it was impossible with all those walkers surrounding the tank. She guessed that the walkers that had climbed up onto the tank would have joined the feeding frenzy by now, but she didn't know how many of them were on the next street. She also didn't know the city's layout. Without that information, she could accidentally lead them both into a death trap, which she wasn't willing to do—not only for her sake, but for Rick's sake and for his family's sake. She knew all too well what it felt like not to know what had become of your family.

"That's twice now that you've saved my life," Rick spoke up, pulling Caterina from her thoughts. "Thank you."

She opened her eyes and looked over at Rick, but she didn't say anything—mostly because she didn't know what _to_ say. She wasn't used to people thanking her for saving their lives. Well, apart from the hurried "thanks" that the occasional survivor had said to her towards the beginning of this thing. Usually, she just did whatever she thought she had to do and went on without anyone saying a word.

"There's no reason to thank me," Caterina finally said. "It was kind of my job, before all of this." She sat up a bit straighter to settle in for the inevitable conversation. She knew that, as soon as she started opening up, Rick would try and continue to talk. It was what most people did. "I was an infantry soldier for the United States Marines."

"Infantry soldier?" he repeated, surprised. "I thought that position was reserved for men."

"It is—or was. I managed to impress my superiors enough during training that they made an exception for me."

"That explains a lot, I guess. Why you're always so calm, and why you're so good with weapons. And how you knew about the bottom hatch."

She smiled slightly, and the two fell into another silence.

Caterina leaned forward so that her forearms were resting on her thighs. She bowed her head to her hands, clasped together between her knees, only to look up again when she heard what sounded like the crackling of a radio. She looked over to where the tank radio was just as a new voice filled the tank.

"Hey, you. Dumb-asses. Yeah, you two in the tank. Cozy in there?"


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**

Thanks to everyone who's already favorited my story and added it to their story alert list. I just posted this on the off chance that some people might enjoy it. I didn't think I'd get such a great response from it! And thanks to Kira5468 and Mione788 for the reviews. I'm glad you like it so far, and I hope you continue to enjoy it :)

By the way, Mione788: Thanks :) I actually chose the title from A Soldier's Heart by R. Kelly. I thought that the song really embodied the lives of everyone that is having to live in this apocalyptic world.

* * *

"Hey, you two alive in there?"

After recovering from her initial shock at hearing another survivor's voice, Caterina quickly shot to her feet and rushed over to the radio. She paused, however, when Rick banged his head in his haste to get up. "You okay?" she asked, admittedly a bit amused.

"Yeah," Rick assured her hurriedly. He grabbed the radio receiver and spoke into it while Caterina strode over in a crouch and knelt down at his side. "Hello? Hello?"

"There you are," the voice sighed in relief. "You had me wondering. Where's the girl?"

Caterina took the receiver from Rick. "I'm here," she said. "What about you? Can you see us?"

"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news."

She raised an eyebrow. "There's good news?"

The voice paused for a moment. "No."

Caterina rolled her eyes and allowed Rick to take back the receiver.

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind tellin' you, I'm a little concerned in here," he almost snapped at the young man. He was obviously more than a little stressed by the situation. Not that Caterina could blame him. After all, they had almost been eaten alive.

"Oh man," the voice said, apparently not caring about Rick's tone. "You should see it from over here. You'd be having a _major_ break-out."

Rick paused to send Caterina an impatient looks before speaking into the receiver again. "Got any advice for us?" he asked, hoping that this young man would be able to help them get out of this. They couldn't just stay in there. He had to find his family. Not to mention that Caterina wouldn't even have gotten in this situation if it weren't for him. He would feel immensely guilty if got her killed just because he'd been excited about finding another survivor.

"Yeah. I'd say make a run for it," the young man advised.

Caterina exchanged disbelieving looks with Rick.

"That's it?" Rick asked incredulously. "'Make a run for it'?"

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds," the man defended himself. "You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one Geek still on the tank, but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. You with me so far?"

"So far."

"Okay. The street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now, while they're distracted, you stand a chance. You got ammo?"

"In that duffle bag we dropped outside—guns. Can we get to it?"

"Forget the bag, okay?" the voice said impatiently. "What do you have on you?"

"Hang on." Rick broke the connection and looked over at his companion. "How many arrows do you have?"

"Seven," Caterina answered immediately. She looked over at the soldier as she remembered the arrow she'd embedded in its head. "Wait."

She stood and went over to the corpse. She said a silent apology before yanking her arrow from its forehead. She cleaned the blood off onto her pants before examining the soldier's pockets for any more weapons, but she found none. She looked up and saw a single grenade sitting on a ledge next to the body. She hesitated for a moment before grabbing it and stuffing it into one of her many pockets. Desperate situations sometimes call for desperate actions, and you never knew when a desperate situation would arise.

"Eight," she corrected herself as she made her way back over to Rick.

"I've got a Beretta with one clip—fifteen rounds," he said into the receiver. "My friend has eight arrows."

"Make 'em count," the young man cautioned. "Jump off of the right side of the tank. Keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe fifty yards. Be there."

Caterina nodded in understanding, although the kid couldn't see her inside of the tank, and crawled over to her crossbow.

"Hey, what's your name?" Rick asked.

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time!" the voice replied.

"Right…"

Caterina grabbed her crossbow and knocked the arrow that she'd taken out of the corpse. She glanced around the tank one more time for any more possible weapons. She paused as she spotted a small shovel mounted up on the wall of the tank. She grabbed it before looking over at Rick. "You ready?"

"Yeah."

"Stick close to me," she warned him.

Rick nodded.

Caterina climbed back up to the hatch and threw the lid up. She turned to the left of the tank and almost jumped when she saw a walker staring up at her with a blank gaze. Without a second's thought, she swung the shovel at the walker's head, knocking it off the side of the tank. She quickly climbed through the hatch and leaped down onto the pavement.

"Come on!" she called back to Rick.

While Rick was making his way out of the tank, Caterina spotted a walker staggering towards her on her left, and she fired an arrow into its head. She blinked in a moment of confusion when she heard two thuds as the walker in front of her fell to the ground. It took her a second to fully realize that the second thud had come from behind her.

Caterina turned, expecting to find that Rick had been attacked, but was relieved when she saw that there were no walkers around him, although he was in a heap on the ground. She guessed that he'd just landed wrong when he jumped down.

She hurried over and grabbed Rick's arm. "Let's go!" she urged him as she helped him onto his feet.

Once he was stable again, Rick took off down the street with Caterina close behind him—after she paused to grab her arrow, of course. She noticed that Rick was clutching at his side, and she immediately worried that he'd somehow gotten bitten. But she couldn't remember seeing any fresh blood on him.

She mentally shook the thoughts from her head. She could leave that for later. They had more pressing matters to tend to at the moment.

She counted the distance as they ran, knocking and firing two more arrows while Rick fired over her shoulder at any walkers that were sneaking up behind them. Once they had reached the fifty yard mark, she turned into the alley that the young man had told them to go into. From her peripheral vision, she spotted something moving in the alley and instinctively raised her crossbow, aiming at the person's head.

"Whoa!" the same voice from the radio cried fearfully. "Not dead!"

Caterina relaxed upon realizing that she was aiming to shoot at the man who was helping them.

The man was obviously of Korean descent, but was raised in American judging by his lack of an accent. He looked to be in his early twenties, with black hair and a light complexion.

"Come on, come on!" the young man cried as he turned and ran back up the alley. Caterina and Rick exchanged a quick before following after him. "Faster! Come on, come on!" he urged them.

Caterina stopped as they reached a fire escape and turned to fire another arrow into a nearby walker. She ushered Rick to the ladder. "Go on, climb!" She glanced back over her shoulder to check the distance between them and the oncoming horde as she strapped her crossbow to her back. They were far enough away not to cause too much worry, but they were still way too close. As soon as Rick was far enough up, Caterina started her ascent after him.

"Come on, get up," the young man said as he helped Rick onto the landing.

Once he was safe, Rick turned back around to help Caterina. He bent over slightly and reached out his hand to her as she neared the landing. "Here."

Caterina grabbed Rick's hand and allowed him to pull her onto the landing with him and the young man. She was panting slightly as she looked over the railing at the herd below, not from really exertion but more from the stress of everything. They'd had far too many close calls to be comfortable with. As she worked on getting her breathing in check, Caterina knocked a fifth arrow. Logically, she knew the walkers couldn't follow them up, but it seemed to her that logic had pretty much been thrown out the window since this whole outbreak started. After all, it used to be logical to assume that the dead would stay dead, and look where they were now—staring down at a mob of walking corpses.

"Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood," the young Korean admonished Rick as the two men struggled to regain their breath. "You the new Sheriff and Deputy pair?" he asked, nodding to Caterina, who was still staring down at the walkers. "Come riding in to clean up the town?"

"It wasn't our intention," Rick answered.

"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You're still dumbasses."

Rick held out his hand to the stranger. "Rick. Thanks."

The man stared down at Rick's hand for a moment before taking it. "Glenn. You're welcome." He looked over at Caterina. "What about you, Lara Croft?"

"Caterina," she introduced herself, reaching over to shake the young man's hand. "I'd prefer you call me Cat."

"Right. Nice to meet you, Cat." Glenn looked down at the walkers. "Oh no."

Caterina looked back down as well to see that a few of the walkers were trying to climb up after them—once again, goodbye logic. She knew that they shouldn't be able to. While they seemed able to move almost as normally as a living human, all of their movements were jerky and uncoordinated. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry.

She moved aside to allow Glenn access to the second ladder. She gazed up the side of the building that they were going to be climbing, mentally noting how far up it went. She had been made to climb up to higher heights before, but that didn't keep her from cursing every step. Admittedly, Caterina had a slight aversion to heights, ever since she fell out of a tree when she was six and broke her leg. It definitely wasn't her favorite memory.

"Bright side? It'll be the fall that kills us," Glenn decided to point out. "I'm a glass half full kinda guy."

Caterina climbed up the ladder after Rick, always the last to be out of danger. She didn't do it consciously; it was more of an instinct. You would think that it would've developed during her days in the military, but she'd always been like that. She just cared more for other's safety than she did her own. The only time she ever allowed herself to focus on her own health was when it was so blatantly obvious that there was nothing she could do for the other person. But even then it killed her to do it.

She supposed that was pretty much the only feminine thing about her. In every other respect, she was very much a tomboy. She never wore dresses or even shorts; she loved sports; she knew more about cars and weapons than she did about fashion or makeup.

Needless to say, her mother was very disappointed that she never had someone to go out and do girly things with.

Caterina followed Rick and Glenn across the roofs, holding herself like a military escort. She guessed, with all that had happened, she'd reverted back to her war days. She glanced down at the alleyway as they walked across a ventilation vent connecting two rooftops. There was a city bus blocking the alley, separating a few walkers from the herd out on the street.

"Are you the one who barricaded the alley?" she asked of Glenn.

"Somebody did. I guess when the city got overrun," he explained as they ran across a gravel-covered rooftop to a roof access hatch. "Whoever did it was thinking. Not many Geeks get through."

"Back at the tank—why'd you stick your neck out for us?" Rick asked.

To be honest, Caterina was wondering the same thing. Not many people would've done that, especially not with how things were now. It was even more of a dog eat dog world than it was before the outbreak. She'd seen people kill other living humans just for their fuel or their car or their food, or to give themselves a chance of escaping, and even sometimes just for fun. It was worse than Iraq.

"Call it a foolish, naïve hope that, if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me," Glenn answered as he lowered himself down the ladder. He paused and looked up at the two strangers, having to squint at the sun shining behind them. "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you two."

Caterina exchanged slightly amused looks with Rick before he went down after Glenn. She strapped her crossbow to her back and lowered herself down after them. When she was far enough down, she reached up and grabbed the hatch and closed it, throwing them into complete darkness. She waited until her eyes had adjusted to the lighting, or lack thereof, before she continued down the ladder.

Once she was back on solid ground, she re-armed herself with her crossbow and followed Rick and Glenn over to the exit. They stepped out onto another fire escape, and she followed the two downstairs to the barricaded alley. As they went, Glenn pulled a two-way radio from his pocket.

"I'm back," he spoke into the radio. "Got guests. Plus four Geeks in the alley."

The three of them paused on the last flight of stairs as two of the four walkers staggered towards them. She aimed her crossbow over Rick's head and moved her finger towards the trigger.

Glenn held up his hand in a gesture to stop Celina. "Wait a second."

As Caterina hesitantly lowered her crossbow, two men came out of the building across the alley, both dressed in protective gear and wielding wooden baseball bats. They snuck up behind the walkers and started beating in their heads.

"Let's go!"

Glenn led the Rick and Caterina across the alley to the door that the men had come out of. While Glenn and Rick wasted no time in going inside, Caterina paused in the doorway to wait for the others. They were still beating the walkers in the heads, and the sound was starting to draw the attention of the remaining walkers in the alley.

"Morales, let's go!" one of the men said. He and the other man—Morales—hurried back to the door, and Caterina stepped aside to allow them entrance before shutting the door behind them.

"You son of a bitch!" a woman's voice yelled. "I oughta kill you both!"

Caterina turned to see a young woman with long, wavy, blonde hair aiming a Smith & Wesson 3913 "Ladysmith" handgun at Rick's face. Caterina's grip on her crossbow tautened, but she knew better than to antagonize this woman by returning the threat. Instead, she took a cautious step forward, allowing her eyes to roll over the gun. She noted quickly that the safety was still on, and she relaxed slightly knowing that there was no real threat.

"Hold on a minute…" she started, only to stop as the woman turned the gun on her. She raised her hands in surrender to appease her. "Okay."

"Just chill out, Andrea," Morales said as he stripped off the armor. He was a strong-looking Hispanic-American with curly dark hair and a slight beard. He had that look about him that said that he was a relatively kind man, but he was tough whenever the situation called for it. "Back off," he urged the woman.

"Come on, ease up," another woman agreed. She was older and of an African American descent. She was fairly kind-looking, but she also had that air about her that said she wasn't averse to giving a beating if someone did anything that asked for it.

"Ease up?" Andrea reiterated dubiously, briefly taking her eyes off Caterina and Rick to look at her companions. "You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of these stupid assholes!" She turned her gaze back on the two strangers and trained her handgun more steadily on Caterina, who raised her hands a bit higher to appease her.

"Andrea, I said back the hell off," Morales said, his tone stronger this time. "Or pull the trigger," he challenged when Andrea didn't move.

There was a moment's pause before Andrea put away her handgun, allowing Caterina and Rick to relax. She was fairly certain that Rick knew that the safety had been off as well, but that didn't make having a gun shoved in your face by an anxious young woman any less stressful. It was like saying that standing before a non-poisonous snake rearing to strike was less startling than standing before a poisonous snake.

"We're dead—all of us," Andrea scoffed. "Because of you."

Caterina exchanged slightly guilty looks with Rick. Although she felt this woman was over exaggerating just a bit, she did agree that whatever situation this group possibly only existed because of them. After all, she and Rick had shot up the streets when they were attacked by that horde.

Still, in their defense, they didn't know there was a group of survivors hiding out nearby.

"I don't understand," Rick spoke up.

"Look," Morales started, grabbing both Rick and Caterina by the arms and leading them further into the building. "We came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the OK Corral."

"Every Geek from miles around heard you two poppin' off rounds," one of the remaining nameless members of the group said. He was a large African American male—not obese, but muscled. He had a rather tough look about him, but Caterina had met enough guys like him to know it was usually just a front. They acted tough, but usually they turned out to be pretty friendly.

They all stopped in the front room of what was obviously a department store. Caterina stepped forward so that she was standing next to Rick, and she followed his gaze towards the front doors. Her heart dropped into her stomach like a rock as she saw the herd of walkers trying to break in through the set of double glass doors. She knew it was only a matter of time before they managed to break through, especially since one of the walkers had been smart enough to grab a large rock and was trying to smash in the glass with it.

"You just rang the dinner bell," Andrea explained.

"Get the picture now?" Morales added.

The glass started to crack from the force of the rock, and the living humans took a group step back—everyone but Caterina. She had been taught a long time ago to stand her ground, even in situations like these.

"Oh God…" Andrea muttered.

Caterina felt Rick grab her arm, and she allowed him to pull her back from the doors, although she never took her eyes off of them. She needed to keep herself aware of how long they had. That way, they might be able to come up with a plan to get everyone out safely before those walkers broke through.

"What the hell were you two doing out there anyway?" Andrea wondered.

"Tryin' to flag the helicopter," Rick replied.

"Helicopter?" the African American man parroted. "Man, that's crap. There ain't no damn helicopter."

"You were just chasing a hallucination—imaging things. It happens," the African woman explained, as if Caterina and Rick weren't aware of what they'd seen.

"Then how did we both see it?" Caterina argued.

Nobody had an answer for that, as she'd expected. There was no way that both she and Rick would've seen that helicopter if it hadn't actually been there. It wasn't like they were severely dehydrated or malnourished, and neither of them were in a psychotic state. They were two perfectly sane, perfectly healthy people who saw a helicopter flying over the city.

"Hey, T-Dog," Morales spoke up. "Try that CB. Can you contact the others?"

"Others?" Rick asked. "The refugee center?"

"Yeah, the refugee center," the black woman scoffed. "They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us."

"I got no signal," the African man—T-Dog—said, fiddling with the station dial. "Maybe the roof."

Everyone jumped as gunfire sounded from above.

"Oh no," Andrea sighed. "Is that Dixon?"

"What is that maniac doing?" the other woman wondered.

"Come on, let's go!" Glenn said, leading the way out of the store. Caterina followed them through the other door, which turned out to be the way to the stairway for the roof. She glanced back over her shoulder out of habit before following them up the stairs.

* * *

When they came out on the roof, Caterina saw a tall, white male with a rugged build firing on the streets with a Winchester Model 70. He had cropped, graying hair, putting his age in the range of mid- to late-thirties. Although she didn't know him, she could already tell that he was your stereotypical redneck just from his clothes and the way that he held himself.

"Hey, Dixon!" Morales cried. "Are you crazy?"

Dixon turned at the sound of his voice and grinned a slightly psychotic grin. "Hey! You oughta be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh?" He leapt down from his perch on the edge of the building, stumbling slightly once he'd landed. "Only common sense."

"Man, you wastin' bullets we ain't even got, man!" T-Dog yelled at him. "And you're bringin' more of 'em down on our ass! Man, just chill!"

"Hey!" Dixon snapped. "It's bad enough I've got this Taco-Bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, _bro_," he said sarcastically, moving forward so that he was standing in T-Dog's face. "That'll be the day."

"'That'll be the day'?" T-Dog echoed. "You got somethin' you wanna tell me?"

"Hey, T-Dog, just leave it, man," Morales tried, but it was obvious T-Dog wasn't having it. "All right? It ain't worth it!" He stepped between him and Dixon, but he focused his attention on Dixon, since he posed the most threat. "Now, Merle? Just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

"You wanna know the day?" Merle Dixon asked, completely ignoring Morales. "I'll tell ya the day, Mr. 'Yo.' It's the day I take orders from a nigger."

"Mother—!" T-Dog yelled, and he took a swing at Merle. The redneck easily dodged.

Then the fight started, and it was obvious which of them had more experience in fighting. T-Dog didn't manage to get in a single hit before Merle smashed the end of his rifle into T-Dog's face. He then tossed it aside, opting to use his fist instead.

"Hey! Come on, Merle, that's enough!" Rick cried. He tried to step in, but Merle just turned and punched him in the face, knocking him back over the pipes.

Caterina placed her crossbow on the steel path before hurrying over to kneel at Rick's side, choosing to help him out instead of intervening. It wasn't smart to just jump in anyway, especially not with a guy like Merle being the one throwing punches. He would keep fighting until either he was dead or he was the only one still standing—sort of like a cornered animal.

"You all right?" she asked Rick.

"Yeah," he groaned.

Caterina stood up and held her hand out to Rick, who took it and used her position to pull himself back onto his feet. Once he had his bearings, the two of them turned to the others.

Merle had gotten T-Dog on the ground using the ground-and-pound strategy. She hadn't seen how he managed it, but now he was striking T-Dog in the face repeatedly with his fists. He seemed to get bored with it, as he pulled a Browning Hi-Power handgun from the back of his jeans and aimed it at T-Dog's face. Everyone was silent as he stared down at T-Dog, hesitating.

Caterina glanced over to Rick as he moved from her side, slowly inching over to the rifle that Merle had dropped. Rick looked back at her and motioned for her to be quiet. She nodded in understanding and turned her attention back on Merle.

Merle glanced at the others before turning his gaze back down on T-Dog. He paused before spitting on T-Dog's shirt and smearing it with a victorious yell. "Yeah! All right!" He slowly got up off of T-Dog, never looking away from him. "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge!"

T-Dog crawled out from between Merle's legs, and Morales and Glenn grabbed his arms to help pull him away.

"I vote me," Merle went on, ignoring them for now. "Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, ya'll. Show of hands. Huh?" He raised his hand as an example. "All in favor? Huh? Come on, let's see 'em."

Morales slowly raised his hand.

"Oh come on," Andrea muttered.

"All in favor?" Merle asked again. He waved his handgun around at the others as they slowly raised their hands—Caterina had to hold back a chuckle when she saw the black woman flipping him off as she raised her hand. Merle either didn't notice this or he didn't care, because he just continued on. "That's good. Now, that means that I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?"

"Yeah," Rick spoke up from behind.

Merle turned, only to get whipped in the face with the end of his own rifle. Once he was on the ground, Rick knelt over him—one knee pressing into the side of Merle's face in order to keep him immobile—and handcuffed him to one of the pipes. He moved off of Merle and dragged him up into a sitting position against the pipe.

"Who the hell are you, man?" Merle hollered at him angrily.

"Officer friendly," Rick quipped back. He turned and grabbed Merle's handgun. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no _niggers_ anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred, white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling _together_, not apart."

"Screw you, man."

Rick sighed heavily. "I can see you make a habit of missin' the point."

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

He shook his head before putting the handgun up to Merle's temple. "You oughta be more polite to man with a gun," he mocked him. "Only common sense."

"You wouldn't. You're a cop."

Rick lowered the handgun, but he didn't move out of Merle's face. "All I am anymore is a man lookin' for his wife and son. Anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna lose." He paused, as if for effect. "I'll give you a moment to think about that." Rick then proceeded to go through Merle's pockets, while Merle just stared off into space almost dreamily. He pulled a small canister from Merle's vest pocket. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was drugs. Rick lifted Merle's head to get a closer look at his nose. "Got some on your nose there," he said, flicking him.

"What're you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle jeered with a mocking laugh. His smile fell, however, as Rick threw the canister over the edge of the roof. "Hey! What're you doin', man? That's my stuff!" He struggled against his binds while Rick just walked off. "If I get loose, you better pray! You hear me, you pig? You hear me?"

"Yeah, your voice carries," Rick called back casually.

Caterina threw a glance over at Merle before following Rick to the ledge. As she came up beside him, she noticed that he was gripping his right arm, which was shaking pretty badly. "You okay?" she asked worriedly, nodding to his arm.

"I'm fine," Rick assured her, though he obviously wasn't.

Before Caterina could decide whether to call him out on his lie, she heard someone walking up behind them. She glanced back to see that it was Morales, who was clutching at his ribs as he approached them. She guessed Merle had gotten a good hit on him when she wasn't looking.

"You're not Atlanta PD," Morales pointed out. "Where're you two from?"

"Up the road a ways," Rick replied slyly.

Morales chuckled. "Well, officer friendly and friend, from up the road a ways—welcome to the big city."


	4. Chapter 3

Caterina pushed away from the ledge and followed Rick and Morales back over to the group. Glenn had taken up a perch on the stairs next to Caterina's crossbow while T-Dog had been propped against the ledge, next to Andrea and the other woman, the two of which were staring down at the streets.

"How's that signal?" Morales questioned.

"Like Dixon's brain—weak," T-Dog quipped as he was messing with the station dial. This earned him a rather rude gesture from Merle, which T-Dog just sneered at.

"Keep trying," Morales encouraged him.

"Why?" Andrea asked, staring pointedly at Rick and Caterina. "There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing."

As Andrea moved away from the ledge, Caterina and Rick turned a questioning gaze on Morales, who gave them an apologetic smile in return. "We've got some people outside the city is all," he explained—though it was more on the question of who they were trying to get in touch with rather than what was wrong with Andrea. The woman obviously had some problems. "There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream."

"Then she's right," Rick said. "We're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out."

"Good luck with that," Merle sneered. "These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear." He leered at Andrea, who was riffling through one of their backpacks. "Ain't that right, sugar tits?"

Caterina rolled her eyes. It figured he'd be the "charming" type. She had met plenty of guys like Merle in the past. She grew up in a low-rate community; you could say it was similar to living in the slums. It had been a common thing for her to receive catcalls from the less-than appealing men who lived in her town. It was one of the reasons why she tended to be antisocial. Still, thanks to her experiences with those guys, she knew how to deal with them whenever she ran into others like that.

"Hey, honeybunch," Merle tried again. "What say you get me outta these cuffs, we go off somewhere, bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway."

"I'd rather," Andrea scoffed.

"Rug muncher," he muttered in disappointment. "Figured as much."

"'These streets ain't safe,'" Morales chaffed. "Now there's an understatement."

"What about under the streets?" Rick asked. "The sewers?"

Morales' eyes lit up at that. "Oh man…" He turned. "Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?"

Glenn got up and ran over to the other side of the roof. He glanced down at the alley where they had come into the building from. After a quick glance over the street, he turned and jogged back over to the others. "No. Must be all out on the street where the Geeks are."

"Maybe not," the black woman spoke up, turning everyone's attention to her. "Old building like this, built in the twenties—big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding. They're all down in the subbasements."

"How do you know that?" Glenn wondered.

"It's my job—was. I worked in the city zoning office."

"Let's go to the subbasements then"" Rick said.

Everyone but T-Dog and Merle nodded and followed him towards the door.

"Wait a second!" Merle called after them "Hold on!"

Caterina paused on the way to the doors to stoop down and grab her crossbow.

"Hey, girlie!" Merle shouted out to her. "Hold on a second, honey buns. How about you get me outta these so's we can go off, have some fun?"

Caterina grinned as she strapped her crossbow to her back. "Oh, sweetheart," she cooed. "You wouldn't be able to handle me."

Merle blinked at her, obviously not having expected that.

Satisfied that she had left Merle speechless, Caterina winked over at T-Dog—who was looking at her with a mixture of surprise and absolute glee—and walked off after the others.

* * *

Once they were in the basements, everyone gathered around the drainage tunnels. Caterina had only been in one building that had these tunnels, and that was during an espionage mission. She'd been sent out with two other men from her squad to scope an area that was rumored to be the meeting place for a known terrorist group. They had to travel through the sewers to get there undetected. It wasn't exactly her favorite memory either, but her comrades had made it a bit more appealing with their constant quips.

"This is it?" Morales asked. "You sure?"

"I really scoped this place out the other times I was here," Glenn answered. "It's the only thing in the building that goes down. But I've never gone down it. Who'd want to, right?"

Everyone looked at Glenn expectantly.

"Oh…" Glenn muttered as he realized what everyone was thinking. "Great."

"We'll be right behind you," Andrea tried to soothe him.

"No, you won't," Glenn said. "Not you."

Andrea instantly became defensive—Caterina had a feeling that she got that way quite often. "Why not me?" she demanded. "You think I can't?"

"I wasn't…" he mumbled, but he trailed off before he could defend himself properly.

"Speak your mind," Rick urged him.

Glenn looked at him hesitantly before taking his advice. "Look, until now, I always came here by myself—in and out, grab a few things—no problem. First time I bring a group, everything goes to hell. No offense," he added quickly, before anyone could get defense. "If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine. But only if we do it my way.

"It's tight down there. If I run into something and have to get out quick, I don't want you jammed up behind me, get me killed. I'll take _one_ person. _Not_ you either," he said as Rick started to ready himself to go down. "You've got Merle's gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were in that store watching those doors, covering our ass. Cat, you go with Rick."

Caterina nodded in understanding.

Glenn pointed at Andrea. "You've got the other gun, so you should go with them." He motioned to Morales. "You be my wing man. Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us. Get us back up in a hurry."

Jacqui nodded. "Okay."

"Okay," Rick said, patting Glenn on the shoulder. "Everybody knows their jobs."

Glenn nodded satisfactorily before putting the end of his flashlight in his mouth and starting down the short ladder into the tunnel, Morales right behind him. Caterina exchanged a quick look with Rick before the two turned away from the tunnels and started back up to the store with Andrea close behind.

* * *

Caterina entered the store first, holding her crossbow expectantly as she crept through the maze of clothes racks. She wanted to be sure that no walkers had gotten through before she let herself relax. She stepped out of the racks once she was closer to the door and lowered her crossbow slightly when she saw that the walkers hadn't broken through the first pair of doors just yet. That meant they had a little more time before things got really dicey.

"I'm sorry for the gun in your faces," Andrea spoke up after a moment of silence.

Caterina glanced back over her shoulder at her in acknowledgement of her comment, but she didn't accept the apology or respond to it. Instead, she decided to leave that to Rick.

"People do things when they're afraid," Rick said in Andrea's defense.

"Not that it was entirely unjustified. You did get us into this."

Caterina had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. It didn't surprise her that Andrea would choose to stick that on at the end, to justify her reaction. As if Rick hadn't done so already.

"If we get us out, would that make up for it?" Rick asked.

"No," Andrea replied honestly. "But it'd be a start."

Caterina took one last look at the doors before turning her gaze on Andrea. "Next time though, you might want to take the safety off," she pointed out. "It won't shoot otherwise."

Andrea looked down her handgun. "Oh…"

"Is that your gun?" she asked.

"It was a gift. Why?"

Caterina lowered her crossbow to her side and stepped forward, holding out her hand. "May I?"

Andrea hesitated before handing it over.

Caterina slid the strap to her crossbow over her shoulder and took the handgun. She turned it onto its side in her palm and pushed the safety button before giving it back to Andrea. "The red dot means it's ready to fire. You may have occasion to use it."

"Good to know."

She slid her crossbow from her shoulder and returned to the front of the counter so that she was facing the door.

They all lapsed into a long silence, which thankfully wasn't so uncomfortable now that they'd made appeasement with Andrea. Still, Caterina would be lying if she said that she didn't still hold a bit of dislike towards her. Andrea was the type of girl that annoyed Caterina to no end. But there weren't many girls that didn't annoy Caterina. She tended to lean more towards guys in respect to friendship. All of the crazy emotions and sense of insecurity most girls had drove Caterina almost crazy. It was fine on some girls, but others took it to the extreme.

Caterina glanced back over her shoulder as Andrea gave a small throaty noise.

"See something you like?" Rick asked.

"Not me, but I know someone who would," Andrea replied. "My sister. She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons—she's into all that stuff. But mermaids, they rule. She loves mermaids."

"Why not take it?"

"There's a cop staring at me," she pointed out dryly.

Rick smiled slightly.

Andrea looked thoughtfully at the necklace. "Would it be considered looting?"

"I don't think those rules apply anymore, do you?"

Andrea didn't get a chance to answer as the sound of glass shattering rang through the store.

Caterina hurried through the clothes rack closer to the entrance. The walkers had broken through the first pair of doors and were now working on breaking through the second pair. "That's one down," she announced, mostly just for the sake of saying something.

Almost as if on cue, Glenn, Morales, and Jacqui ran into the room.

"What'd you find down there?" Rick asked as soon as he saw them.

"Not a way out," Morales relayed unhappily.

"We need to find a way," Andrea said. "Soon."

Caterina nodded. "We should get back to the roof for now," she suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and they hurried off to the stairs.

* * *

Back on the roof, everyone had gathered around the ledge again, looking out at the city below. They were searching for another way to escape, now that the sewers had been ruled out. Luckily, the others had brought binoculars, so it was easy for Rick to scout out the area for anything that they could use.

"There," Rick said, pointing out into the city. "That construction site. Those trucks—they always keep keys on hand."

Caterina followed Rick's hand to a construction site at the end of the street directly below them. It was about half a mile from the store, and there were about a hundred walkers covering that whole length. It would be impossible to get through them without taking a few bites, at least not without finding some way to distract them first.

"You'll never make it past the walkers," Morales said, voicing Caterina's thoughts.

Rick turned to Glenn. "You got us out of that tank."

"Yeah, but they were feeding," Glenn reminded him. "They were distracted."

"Can we distract 'em again?"

"Right, listen to him," Merle spoke up for the first time since they had joined him and T-Dog back up on the roof. "He's on to sumthin'. A diversion, like on 'Hogan's Heroes.'"

"God, give it a rest," Jacqui said, exasperated.

"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick asked, ignoring Merle. It was pretty obvious that he was used to guys like Merle, what with how he had taken care of him when he was bullying the others. But that was to be suspected since Rick was once a Sheriff's Deputy. He probably dealt with a lot of bullies.

"Right," Glenn nodded. "Like dogs. They hear a sound, they come."

"What else?"

"Aside from they hear you?" Morales jumped in. "They see you, smell you, and, if they catch you, they eat you."

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick questioned in surprise. He obviously hadn't thought about that.

"Can't you?" Glenn asked.

"They smell dead, and we don't," Caterina added. "We're fresh."

Rick adopted a thoughtful look, and Caterina was pretty sure she knew where his mind was going. If they couldn't get through the walkers by distracting them, what better way than to walk into the dragon's nest disguised as dragons themselves?

* * *

It took a bit of convincing to get the others on board with Rick's plan, but eventually everyone agreed that it was the best plan they had. Not to mention that they didn't have much time to think up something else. The walkers had already broken through one set of doors. It was only a matter of time before they broke through the second set, and then they would all be screwed.

While Rick and Morales went out to grab one of the corpses in the alley, Caterina and the others slipped into some gray coats they'd stolen from the departments along with some blue latex gloves. Caterina was the only one who'd been given a visor face shield, since she'd decided to take up the task of "gutting" the walker. She was pretty sure none of the others had the stomach for it, and she could tell that Rick wasn't up for it. Though she didn't know how, she knew that he'd gotten injured sometime in the past. He seemed perfectly fine a majority of the time but, whenever he exerted himself physically, he was always clutching at his side. If they wanted to get out of this, then he would need to be on top of his game.

Caterina grabbed the tire iron they'd found and walked over to the glass case at the front of the storage room. Inside of it was a fire axe. Since no one had any sharp weapons on them, they would need the axe to gut the walker. So Caterina swung the tire iron into the glass, shattering it. She grabbed the axe from its casing and went around to the other side of the group, handing the tire iron to Glenn for him to hold.

She stood over the rotting corpse and gripped the axe in both hands, readying herself to take the first swing.

"Are you sure you don't want me to do this?" Rick asked. He'd tried to fight her over who would be the one to deal with the walker, but Caterina had managed to convince him to let her do it so he could have a bit of a rest. But that didn't stop him from asking if she was sure every few seconds.

Caterina sent Rick an exasperated look. "Do you really want to argue about who gets to cut up the walker?"

Rick opened his mouth to answer, but decided against it and instead lowered his head submissively.

Caterina had to resist the urge to roll her eyes as she turned her attention back on the cadaver. "You might want to step back," she warned the others. She paused for a moment as everyone took a single step back and then raised the axe over her head. She had started to bring it down when Rick spoke up again.

"Wait!"

She quickly flexed the muscles in her arms to absorb the axe's momentum, stopping it just inches from cutting into the corpse's abdomen. She looked up at Rick in slight irritation. "What?" she almost snapped at him. It wasn't like they had all the time in the world here.

Rick motioned for her to step back, and Caterina did so obediently, despite her irritation. Rick moved to the walker's side and knelt down, removing his gloves. He glanced up at Caterina before rummaging through the walker's pant pocket. He pulled out a wallet and opened it. "Wayne Dunlap," he said, reading off the name on the driver's license. "Georgia license. Born in 1979." He took out the license and handed it to Glenn, who took it almost hesitantly. Rick continued to roam through the wallet. "He had twenty-eight dollars inside his pocket when he died." He pulled a small picture from one of the folds. "And a picture of a pretty girl." He flipped it over and read off the back. "'With love, from Rachel.'" He looked up at everyone. "He used to be like us—worrying about bills or the rent or the super bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell 'em about Wayne."

Rick stayed knelt at the walker's side for a moment before he stuffed the wallet back in the man's pocket. He stood up and nodded for Caterina to continue.

She hesitated. What Rick had just done hadn't made it any easier to cut up the walker. Before, since she hadn't had a name or anything to associate with it, she could have just thought of it as an enemy and it would've been easy not to care that she was cutting up someone's corpse. But now that she did have a name, it made it a bit harder.

She did understand why Rick had done what he did—to give everyone a bit of perspective on what was really going on, and to commemorate the person that this walker had once been. She thought it was an honorable thing to do.

Still, it did make it harder.

Caterina steeled herself and raised the axe once more. She was made to pause again, however, as Glenn spoke.

"One more thing," Glenn said, staring down at the license in his hands. He looked up at the others. "He's an organ donor."

Caterina almost smiled at the irony in that. She exchanged a quick look with Rick and turned back to the corpse at her feet. She raised the axe higher and held it there for a moment before bringing it down into the walker's abdomen. Everyone exclaimed in disgust and turned their noses away at the horrible smell that drifted up to them as Caterina continued chopping without so much as batting an eyelash.

"How is this not making you sick?" Andrea asked in disbelief.

"I'm used to it," Caterina grunted as she continued to bring the axe down on the walker's midsection.

"I am _so_ gonna hurl," Glenn gagged.

"Later," Rick replied offhandedly, his eyes never leaving the walker. Apart from Caterina, he was the only one who had managed to maintain his composure. He had turned away from the smell at first, but he regained himself fairly quickly.

Caterina continued cutting away at the body until most of its organs were exposed. She stopped once she decided that she'd made a big enough mess and took a step back, as if to admire her work. "I think that should do," she said, looking up at Rick for confirmation.

Rick nodded. "All right, everybody got gloves?"

Everyone held out their hands, similar to how a doctor would just before surgery. Caterina removed the shield mask and tossed it aside along with the axe (although she made a mental note of where they landed). She knelt down with the others and dipped her gloved hands into the corpses' open abdomen. She was tempted to gag at the squelching sound that it made as she dug her hands under the organs, but she managed to resist. While it was true that she was indeed used to all the gore and carnage, she'd never actually touched very many bodies—and the ones that she _had_ touched had still been warm.

Caterina shook off those memories and set to work lathering herself in blood and organs.

Rick remained just as composed as he smeared the blood over his own coat, but Glenn was having a much harder time with it. He gagged and groaned, muttering to himself about how much he hated Rick and how bad the situation was. No one faulted him for his reaction.

But they probably thought Rick and Caterina were crazy because they weren't reacting the same way.

"Think about sumthin' else," Rick suggested. "Puppies and kittens."

"_Dead_ puppies and kittens," T-Dog added.

That seemed to be the last straw for Glenn, because he turned around and threw up.

"That is just evil," Andrea bit at Rick. "What is wrong with you?"

"Next time, let the cracker beat his ass," Jacqui said in agreement with Andrea. The odd thing was that she had the most composed expression on her face compared to the others, though there was a bit more disgust there than there was on Rick's or Caterina's faces.

"I'm sorry, yo," Morales apologized as he helped to cover Glenn in the walkers' innards.

"Do we smell like them?" Rick asked.

"Oh yeah," Andrea coughed. She pulled off on her gloves and pulled her handgun from its place tucked in the back of her jeans. "Glenn," she said, holding it out in front of him. "Just in case." Glenn nodded, and Andrea tucked the gun down the front of Glenn's jeans, since she couldn't reach anywhere else and Glenn couldn't take it himself since he still had his gloves on.

"If we make it back, be ready," Rick instructed the others.

"What about Merle Dixon?" T-Dog asked.

Rick removed one of his gloves and reached into his pant pocket. He pulled out the key to the handguns and tossed it to T-Dog, who took with a serious look on his face. It was almost as if Rick had just entrusted him with the most important mission with how solemn T-Dog looked.

"Cat?" Rick said. "We need more guts."

Caterina nodded. "Right." She took the axe from Morales and set back to work.

* * *

Finally, Caterina stepped out of the door with Glenn and Rick, entrails hanging from around her neck. Her coat was drenched in the walker's black blood, making it so that all too familiar stench of death was constant beneath her nose. Caterina felt extremely dirty and wanted so badly to take a shower, even though they had been sure not to get any on their skin or their clothes underneath.

She exchanged uncertain looks with the two men before they started stumbling up the alley towards the bus. Rick had armed himself with the fire axe while Glenn had the tire iron, the both of which the men kept hanging at their sides loosely. Caterina had left her crossbow with T-Dog, who had assured her that he would keep it safe. Instead, she was holding her Buck 119 Special Fixed Blade Hunt Knife at her side loosely. It had belonged to her brother. He'd given it to her before she'd been deployed to Iraq, as a reminder of him while she was gone. She'd decided to take it with her when this apocalypse thing started, not only for when she was in a situation where she didn't have any ammunition but also to remind her that her family was somewhere out there.

That was what she'd been doing before Rick found her—looking for her family. She knew that it was very unlikely that she would actually find them, but it wasn't like she had anything better to do.

Caterina kept her gaze forward as she staggered past the walkers in the alley. One of them stepped up to her and sort of sniffed at her, and she worried for a moment that the stench of death wasn't strong enough. She had to hold back a sigh of relief when the walker turned away from her in disinterest.

Once she and her two companions had reached the bus, they slowly got down onto their stomachs and crawled to the other side. She had to pause just before she crawled out from under the bus as she saw all the feet shuffling past. No matter how many times she was around so many walkers, it always made her heart beat a little faster. It was just one of those things that you never got used to.

Caterina clambered back onto her feet and glanced over at the others before she started stumbling off towards the construction site, Glenn and Rick right beside her. Her whole body was tense as she walked through the mob. She was just waiting for one of them to smell the fresh meat underneath the stench of rotting blood and attack them. But, as they moved, it became clear that the odor was too strong.

As they went on, Caterina continually glanced over at Rick and Glenn to see how they were fairing. If either one of them started to panic—she mostly just suspected it from Glenn, since Rick seemed capable of keeping a cool head in tense situations—then she would need to try and calm them down before they alarmed the walkers.

"It's gonna work," Glenn muttered from the corner of his mouth. "I cannot believe it."

"Don't draw attention," Caterina warned him, sure to limit how much her mouth moved. She almost smiled at the over exaggerated groaning that Glenn started to make. She wasn't sure if he was doing it to be funny or if his fear made him do it. Either way, it was hilarious.

A loud rumbling sounded from above them, and all traces of humor were washed away. Caterina glanced up at the sky, and her heart skipped a beat in her chest when she saw that there were rain clouds accumulating over the city. She hoped for a moment that they would pass over before unleashing their water, but it was snuffed when she felt a raindrop on her cheek. She prayed that this would just be a cloudburst. The rain would pass quickly that way, but it could still wash away the smell from that walker they had bathed in.

God seemed to seriously hate them right now.

Caterina's hand tightened around the handle of her Buck knife. The walkers were starting to get rowdy, a sign that the smell was washing off.

"The smell is washing off, isn't it?" Glenn asked fearfully.

"Unfortunately, yes," Caterina replied. She stepped around a walker standing in front of her, this time making eye contact with it. Once it had passed, she glanced over at her comrades. "Upon my signal, make a run for it."

"What?"

Caterina didn't bother to answer as she heard one of the walkers give a hungry roar. She spun around and grabbed the corpse by its hair, in the same motion stabbing her knife up into its jaw. She wrenched the blade out quickly, allowing the body to fall to the ground.

"Run!" she shouted.

All three of them took off running towards the construction site. Caterina decked an oncoming walker in the face as she ran past, knocking it into the ground. She then had to slam her palm upwards on the nose of another, sending the bone into its brain.

As they neared the fence surrounding the site, Caterina put the handle of her knife in her mouth. She launched herself onto the fence and scurried over, all the while silently thanking her wall-climbing training back in the military.

Once over the fence, she shed her coat and tucked her knife back into its holster on her thigh. She followed Glenn and Rick around the building to where the lock box was.

Rick threw open the door to the lock box and grabbed a pair of keys. "There!" he cried as he tossed the keys over to Glenn, who then threw them to Caterina. She caught them and motioned for Rick to follow her as she hurried over to one of the cube vans. She wrenched open the driver's door and allowed Rick to jump in first. She waited until he had climbed into the back before she positioned herself in the driver's seat.

As soon as Glenn slid into the passenger seat, she jammed the key in the ignition. She turned it, giving a sigh of relief when the engine turned over. She almost jumped as a walker slammed into the passenger door. She looked over to see it pressing its face against the glass, gnashing its jaw as if it thought it could somehow bite Glenn through the glass.

Glenn shouted in surprise. "Go, go, go, go!" he howled.

Caterina obediently threw the car into reverse and slammed down on the gas pedal. She heard a few dull thumps as the van backed into what she guessed were construction barrels, though they also could have been walkers if they'd found a way into the construction site through the back.

She shifted into drive and tore out of the construction site.

"Oh my God, oh my God!" Glenn continued to shout. "They're all over that place!"

"Glenn, calm down," Rick tried to soothe him.

"You need to draw them away," Caterina started to explain. Somehow, she already knew what Rick had planned out without him having to tell her. "We need the area in front of the roll-up doors at the front of the store cleared."

"Raise your friends," Rick added. "Tell them to get down there and be ready."

"And I'm driving the Geeks away how?" Glenn asked. "I-I missed that part."

"Noise."

* * *

Caterina drove out to an area where there were very few walkers and threw the cub van in park. As she stepped out of the van, she grabbed her knife from its temporary holding place. She held it loosely as she watched Rick use the tire iron that Glenn had been using as a weapon to break into a red sports car. It was a good pick on his part. Sports cars usually had really good alarm systems.

She flinched as the car alarm started blaring loudly, and Glenn cupped his hands around his ears.

"Now, drive this to the front of the store and clear it out so we can get through," Rick instructed, trying to speak over the sound of the alarm.

"All right," Glenn nodded.

Caterina noticed that he was a bit nervous, so she took advantage of the time it took for Rick to hotwire the car to try and make him relax.

She stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on Glenn's shoulder. "It's all right, Glenn," she encouraged him. "This will be easy. All you have to is drive." Glenn looked up at her, and she smiled at the spark of confidence in his eyes. She patted his shoulder before stepping away to let him slid into the car.

Caterina and Rick returned to the cub van and started for the store where the others were.

* * *

Caterina sped out onto the street where the department store was and gave a sigh of relief when she saw that Glenn had already cleared the area. It left her able to spin the van freely and back it up to the roll-up doors. Once the van was in place, she turned in her seat and watched as Rick threw up the roll-up doors of the van so he could bang on the door to the department store.

"Get ready to move!" Rick called out.

As soon as he spoke, the doors rose and the others started to through themselves into the back of the van. She was quick to notice their harried expressions and guessed that the walkers had just broken through the last set of doors. She also noticed that Merle wasn't with them.

"I'm in!" Morales shouted once he was in the van.

"Go!" Rick cried.

Caterina turned back around and threw the van into drive. She slammed down on the gas pedal, and they tore out of the loading area. She heard the doors sliding shut as she took a sharp turn onto the street leading to the highway. She didn't slow down until they were well out of the highly infected areas. Once they were, she threw a quick look over at Rick, who'd taken up his spot in the passenger seat. He'd apparently noticed that Merle was missing as well.

The air was heavy as they wondered what had happened to Merle.

"I dropped the damn key," T-Dog said, finally breaking the silence and answering everyone's question.

There was another moment of silence before Andrea seemed to realize that they were missing one more member of their group. "Where's Glenn?" she asked.

Caterina exchanged another look with Rick, smiling slightly.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:**

Hey, guys! I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update in a few days. I've had two tests that I needed to study for, and I had to do some work for another one of my classes, AND it was my mother's birthday this week! I had to go visit her at her place, and I don't have access to a computer over there so I couldn't update.

Anyways, I'm glad that you're all enjoying it so far! I hope you continue to!

* * *

Caterina kept shifting in her seat as she drove everyone out of Atlanta city. Apart from the directions that Morales was giving her, nobody had said a thing since they left the store. She guessed everyone was thinking about Merle.

It was what _she_ was thinking about. As an infantryman, it had been drilled into her head during her training that she wasn't to leave a man behind, no matter the cost. If you had the ability to save your comrade, you took it. If you were given the opportunity but you didn't, you were considered to be lower than dirt—at least that's how it was in her squad.

Even though there wasn't anything she could've done without possibly endangering everyone else, she still felt guilty about leaving Merle behind. She kept going over different ways she could have gotten Merle and everyone else out safely. She was sure that there was some way that she could've gone back into the store once everyone was safe in the van. She could have gone up to the roof and broken Merle free.

Though what would happen after that was kind of sketchy.

"Best not to dwell on it—Merle getting left behind," Morales muttered from the passenger seat. He had taken Rick's place once they got back on the road, so that he could better direct her. "Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back. Except…maybe Daryl."

"Daryl?" Rick asked.

"His brother."

Another silence fell over them, only to be broken again by the sound of a car alarm growing louder and louder. Caterina looked in the side view mirror and saw Glenn's stolen car creeping up on her side. She almost smiled when he sped past her, his fist pumping out of the window as he shouted out in elation.

"At least somebody's having a good day," Morales chuckled.

* * *

It was another ten minutes before Caterina pulled up behind a church van outside of the others' campsite. As she did, she caught a glimpse of a fairly large group of survivors gathered around Glenn. They all seemed to be talking animatedly about something. She could only assume that it was about his newly acquired car. She'd heard the alarm blaring almost the entire ride up there, even after Glenn was far from sight. If she'd been able to hear it, she was sure that walkers might have as well.

Maybe they should've thought that part through a little more…

Morales reached out and patted Caterina on the shoulder, bringing her attention back to him. "Come meet everybody," he urged her before glancing back at where Rick was sitting with T-Dog. Andrea and Jacqui had already gotten out to greet the others. "You too," Morales said, nodding to Rick.

Caterina stayed where she was while Morales got out of the van. She was admittedly a bit nervous about meeting another group. Not to mention she hadn't really been looking to join up with another camp of survivors. It was only because of Rick that she was there in the first place.

Speaking of Rick, Caterina turned around in her seat to look back at Rick. He'd remained in place in the back of the van, pinching the bridge of his nose with a sorrowful look on his face. It wasn't hard to figure out that he was thinking about his family. He'd gone to Atlanta in the hopes of finding them, but instead he'd found a city overrun with walkers. Caterina was pretty sure even the refugee center had been overrun, from what little Jacqui had said about it. So if his family wasn't up at the center and they hadn't fallen victim to the disease, there was no telling where they were.

"You two comin' or what?" T-Dog asked as he jumped out of the back of the van.

"Yeah, just give us a minute," Caterina told him.

T-Dog glanced between her and Rick for a moment before nodding and walking off.

Caterina stood up and climbed into the back of the van. She slowly walked over to where Rick was, as if approaching a skittish animal, and knelt down in front of him. Rick didn't even acknowledge that she was there until she reached out and placed a hand on his arm. When he did look up at her, Caterina could easily see all of the stress and fear and sadness that weighed on his shoulders reflected in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked gently.

"Yeah," Rick replied with a forced smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay."

Caterina just stared at him, watching the thoughts of his family cross his eyes. After a moment, she sighed and squeezed Rick's arm gently. "I'm sorry we couldn't find your family. I know how worried you must be."

Rick smiled slightly, this time more realistically.

"Hey, officer friendly! Lara Croft!" Morales called out. "Come say hello!"

Caterina glanced towards the front of the van before looking back at Rick, who seemed to muster up some composure now. She stood and held out her hand to Rick, who took it and pulled himself onto his feet. He smiled at her one last time before jumping out of the van. Caterina followed behind him, stopping to grab her crossbow and strap it to her back.

"The guy's a cop, just like you," she heard Morales saying. "And I think the girl's military."

Caterina walked around to the front of the van to join Rick on the path leading into the camp. He took only a few steps before stopping cold, staring in front of him. Caterina stepped up next to him, about to ask what was wrong, when she saw the tearful relief on his face. She turned and scanned the group, and her eyes fell immediately upon a mother and son standing at the back of the group. They were both staring back at Rick with the same look of surprise on their faces, and she realized that this was the family he'd told her about.

"Oh my God…" Rick muttered.

As if breaking from some spell, the son broke away from his mother and bolted towards Rick, who hurried forward to meet him. The mother—Lori—hesitated before hurrying to join them.

Caterina stood in place as she watched the reunion, a soft smile on her face. If she was honest, she was a bit jealous of Rick. He'd been reunited with his family while she still had no idea what had happened to hers. But she was happy for him. Despite her suspicions of him when they first met, it was easy to tell that Rick was an honestly kind man. He deserved a bit of happiness, especially with how things were now.

Rick turned in a slow circle, hugging his family close to him, and caught Caterina's eye. He seemed to realize something, and he pulled away from his wife and son, though he didn't let them leave his arms. "Lori. Carl. I want you to meet someone," he said. He motioned for Caterina to come closer.

Caterina hesitated. She didn't want to interrupt their reunion, but it seemed Rick was adamant. So she slowly approached the group. Her nerves sparked as she realized that everyone's eyes were on her now, and she reached up to hold the strap of her crossbow tightly. She was pretty sure that this probably made some of the others a bit anxious, but it calmed her down a bit. She felt safer with a weapon in her hands, even when there wasn't any danger in front of her.

"This is Caterina Miller—Cat," Rick introduced her to his family. "She's the main reason I'm here right now. She saved my life twice, and at the risk of her own."

Caterina could feel the blood pooling in her face now. Being the antisocial person that she was, she definitely wasn't used to so much attention (at least none that wasn't from hormone-crazed men). And she definitely didn't like to be praised. Needless to say, she was embarrassed. So she tried to play off the amount of acclaim that Rick was giving her.

"I wouldn't play it up so big," she commented offhandedly. "My neck was on the light too."

"Oh, get off it," Morales said, seeming to see the need to add his two cents. "Back at the department store, you were always the last out of danger. You wanted to make sure everyone else got to safety first."

"He's right," Andrea added from where she was standing with whom Caterina guessed was her sister.

Caterina shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant, though she was sure everyone could clearly see the red in her cheeks now. She _really_ wanted to go back in the van and hide in there until they forgot about her.

"I was just doing what I was trained to do," she muttered, mentally cursing everyone who had felt the need to give her so much praise.

She tensed as Rick's wife stepped up to her, staring straight at her with a serious look on her face. For a minute, she was worried that Lori was going to hit her, so she was very much surprised (not to mention embarrassed) when Lori pulled her into a hug. She held out her hands awkwardly at her sides, not sure what to do with them.

"Thank you for bringing him home to us," Lori whispered in her ear.

Caterina didn't say anything. She just looked over Lori's shoulder at Rick, who was smiling almost proudly.

* * *

Night had fallen, and everyone had gathered around the multiple fires throughout camp. They were smart enough to keep the fire as embers so that they couldn't be seen from a distance. If there were any walkers (or even humans) about, they would've been drawn to the smoke and the camp would no longer be safe.

Caterina sat at the largest fire between T-Dog and Glenn. Rick and his family were in the group as well, and Rick was telling them how he had woken up in the hospital just a few days ago. He had already told Caterina about it, and how he'd been saved by a father and his son, but he went into a bit more detail about how everything had felt when he woke up to this apocalypse.

"Disoriented—I guess that comes closest," Rick said. "Disoriented… Fear, confusion—all of those things. But…disoriented comes closest."

"Words can be meager things," Dale, the oldest of the group, said. "Sometimes they fall short."

Rick nodded in agreement. "I felt like I had been ripped outta my life and put somewhere else. For a while, I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, sumthin' I might not wake up from, ever."

"Mom said you died…" Carl muttered.

Rick glanced up at his wife before smiling down at his son. "She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it."

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna med-evac you and the other patients to Atlanta," Lori explained. "And it never happened."

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell. And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."

"Yeah, looks don't deceive," another man of the group—Shane—said. He had been introduced to Caterina as Rick's partner. "I barely got them out, ya know?" he said, nodding to Lori and Carl.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane," Rick conveyed. "I can't begin to express it."

"There go those words falling short again," Dale said with a smile. "Paltry things."

Everyone fell silent, each of them seeming to get lost in their thoughts. Caterina was starting to let herself think about her family again when her attention was grabbed by the sound of fire crackling. She looked towards the sound, to where a family of three was sitting around another fire off to the right. The father—Ed, she thought his name was—had added another log to their fire.

Shane seemed to notice this as well, and he gave an exasperated sigh. "Hey, Ed?" he called out to him, bringing everyone's attention to the situation. "You wanna rethink that log?"

"It's cold, man," Ed replied.

"Cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers, so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said, it's cold," Ed bit back. "You should mind your own business for once."

Shane obviously didn't like this, because he got up from where he was sitting on the ground next to T-Dog, who reached out as if to stop him. Shane didn't pay this any mind as he walked over to the family.

He walked around to where Ed was sitting. "You sure you wanna have this conversation, man?" he asked softly. Caterina wouldn't have been able to hear him if everyone else wasn't so quiet.

Ed stared up at him thoughtfully before turning to his wife. "Go on. Pull the damn thing out."

The woman immediately got up and pulled the log out of the fire. Shane shook his head at this, in what Caterina supposed was frustration and disgust, before walking over and crushing the log under his boot. Once the embers were gone, Shane knelt down next to Ed's wife, Carol, and their daughter, Sophia.

"Hey, Carol, Sophia," he whispered. "How are y'all this evenin'?"

"Fine," Carol replied, almost dismissively. "We're just fine." She glanced at Ed, who just stared at her with an almost hateful look on his face, before leaning toward Shane as if she were about to tell him a secret. "I'm sorry about the fire."

"No, no, no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"

Carol smiled slightly. "Thank you."

Shane nodded and got to his feet. He turned to Ed, and the gentle and kind look he'd held toward Carol and Sophia dropped. "Appreciate the cooperation," he muttered as he returned to the fire the others were at.

Even after the confrontation was over and done with, Caterina continued to stare at Ed with a blank look on her face. Even though she didn't know him, it was obvious to tell from how Shane reacted to him and how his wife had scurried to do as she was told, and how his daughter hadn't looked up from the fire during the entire thing, that Ed wasn't the "kind and loving husband" type. Carol and Sophia had all the signs of an abused family.

That pissed Caterina off to no end. It was certain that she'd met a few abusive husbands given the neighborhood that she'd grown up in. They definitely weren't her favorite type of people. In fact, after she came home from her military training, she got into a fight with a man that lived next door to her parents when she saw him beating on his wife. If her brother hadn't been there to intervene, she was pretty sure that she would've beaten him within an inch of his life. That was how much she hated abusive men.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" Dale asked once everything had settled again. "He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."

"I'll tell him," T-Dog offered. "I dropped the key. It's on me."

"I cuffed him," Rick argued. "That makes it mine."

"Guys, it's not a competition," Glenn jumped in. "I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

"I did what I did," T-Dog grunted. "Hell if I'm gonna hide from it."

"We could lie," Andrea's sister, Amy, suggested.

"Or tell the truth," Andrea contradicted her. "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." She looked up at Lori. "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it's nobody's fault but Merle's"

"And that's what we _tell_ Daryl?" Dale asked in disbelief. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?"

Andrea shrugged.

"Word to the wise: we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"I was scared, and I ran," T-Dog admitted. "I'm not ashamed of it."

"We were all scared; we all ran," Andrea threw back. "What's your point?"

"I stopped long enough to chain that door," he replied, and everyone looked at him in realization. "Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen Geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. But it's not enough to break through there—not that chain, not that padlock." He paused. "My point: Dixon's alive, and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."

With that, T-Dog got up and stalked off towards the tents, clutching at his injured ribs.

Caterina watched him go. She was sorely tempted to go after him, seeing how she know more than anyone how he was feeling, but she decided against it. After all, if it was her, she would want to be on her own, to wallow in her guilt.

She turned her gaze back on the others, and she looked around at them before getting to her feet, deciding to explore the area a bit. If she was going to be staying with these people, she wanted to take a look at their fortification, to make sure they were safe enough where they were. If she found anything that she didn't like, she would fix it.

"Where're you going?" Rick asked as she grabbed her crossbow.

"I'm going to check out the perimeter," she answered truthfully. There was no point lying.

"There's no need," Shane told her. "We've got traps set up out in the trees. If anything comes close to camp, we'll hear it."

"Still, I'd feel better if I checked it out for myself."

"You shouldn't go out there by yourself," Rick said worriedly.

Caterina almost rolled her eyes at his sudden protectiveness. He knew well enough that she could take care of herself.

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "I was on my own for weeks before you came along."

Rick nodded his assent after a moment, although it was hesitant, and Caterina slung her crossbow over one shoulder and walked off into the trees.

She kept walking until the glow of the embers was barely visible. She walked all around the camp from that point, listening to every little sound that the forest made, which actually wasn't much at all. The only real sound was that of crickets. Any other animals were either hiding or long dead, by either walkers or hunters. Caterina was fairly sure that a majority of the world's animals were now either extinct or close to extinction, since they were pretty much the only food source for those who were still alive. Well, at least the non-poisonous animals. They were probably being killed by the walkers.

It felt like just minutes before Caterina decided that everything was secure and started heading back to camp. She noticed fairly quickly that the embers were long gone. No matter how close she got to the campsite, she couldn't see them. But that didn't matter. She'd always been a good navigator.

She broke through the trees and saw that everyone had gone off to bed. She must have been gone longer than she'd thought.

A clap of thunder rolled over the earth, turning Caterina's eyes to the sky.

"I was wonderin' when you'd get back," a now familiar voice called out. Caterina looked towards it and saw Shane lounging in a lawn chair on top of the RV, underneath an attached umbrella. She guessed that he was the lookout for the night. "How's the perimeter?" he asked.

"Seems fine. Didn't see anything that needed work at least."

"Good." He nodded over to the side. "We had an extra tent. I set it up for you."

Caterina looked over to where Shane had indicated and saw a small tent set up close to the fire pit. It was the perfect size for her, not big enough that she would feel small and not small enough to make her feel huge.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

"No problem. You might wanna get inside before it starts rainin'."

Caterina nodded, and she disappeared inside the tent after biding Shane goodnight.

* * *

It was almost the afternoon when Caterina woke up. It had been a while since she'd gotten a good night's sleep, and so much had happened yesterday. Needless to say, by the time that she went to bed last night, she'd been beyond exhausted.

She sat up groggily and looked around the tent. She paused as she spotted a clean pair of clothes folded neatly next to her makeshift bed. She couldn't remember waking up to anyone coming into her tent last night or this morning. Usually, she was a light sleeper—even more so now. Even the slightest sound tended to wake her up.

**_I must've been more tired than I thought…_** she thought to herself.

She threw black her blanket and stood to change into the clothes that had been left for her. It was a pair of tan trousers and a blue-grey tank top that fit her as it was her own shirt. She liked the outfit well enough. It wasn't too girly or too boyish; it was light and enabled her to move easily. Whoever picked it for her had her personality in mind when they chose it, which she was grateful for.

After pulling on her combat boots, she stepped out of her tent. Everyone else was already out and about, busying themselves with things for the camp. Caterina felt guilt that she hadn't woken earlier so she could help out. After all, these people had accepted her into their group without a second's thought. The least she could do was help out with chores.

She ducked back into her tent and grabbed her crossbow before strolling around the camp, looking for ways to help.

"Good mornin'," a voice called out to her.

Caterina turned and saw Carol, Ed's mousy wife, pinning clothes on a clothesline along with Rick's wife, Lori. Caterina's hand tautened on the strap of her crossbow at the thought of Ed, but she was quick to shake it off. The last thing she needed to do was start a fight on her first day there.

Instead, she approached the other women and Rick, who'd been standing there talking to Lori.

"Morning," she greeted back. "How did you all sleep?"

"Good," Lori replied.

"Really good," Rick added. "How about you?"

"Better than I have in weeks," Caterina admitted with a slight grin. "I'm sorry I slept in so late."

"It's not a problem," Carol said. "You looked like you needed it. Anyway, I'm glad they fit," she added as she looked Caterina over.

Caterina glanced down at her new clothes. Now she knew where they had come from. "I take it you got these for me?" she asked, although the answer was now obvious.

"Yeah. I also took your old clothes and washed 'em for you." She motioned to Caterina's old outfit hung up on the clothesline with the other clothes. "They're still damp, but the sun should dry them out soon."

"Thank you," she said genuinely. "That was very kind."

"It was no problem," Carol waved her off as she walked over to a nearby ironing board. Caterina nodded to Lori and Rick before following her. "How are you feelin', by the way?" she wondered. "I saw you walk off last night..."

"Oh, I'm fine," she assured her. "I was just checking out the set up. I haven't been in a camp like this for a while. I wanted to make sure everything was secure."

Caterina turned as Shane came riding up in a jeep wrangler.

"Water's here, y'all," he called to the other survivors. "Just a reminder to boil before use." Caterina saw him nod over to Rick.

"How early does everyone usually get up around here?" Caterina asked, turning back to Carol.

"I'm not sure," Carol mused. "It's kinda hard to tell time now. But I'd guess about seven or eight."

Caterina nodded, sure to mark that in her mind for the future. She didn't want to become a burden on the group. In order to avoid becoming one, she had to pull her weight. That meant helping out with the chores and finding food. She was able to hunt pretty well. She was commended during her training as an excellent marksman, and she was able to track with the best of them. And she was fast, especially when she didn't have to worry about helping others. She could make runs into town if they started running out of stuff in the camp.

She was suddenly snapped from her thoughts as the sound of a woman's screams reached camp. It took less than a second for her to react, as she pulled her crossbow from her shoulder and took off towards the yell along with Rick, Lori, Carol, and a few of the other survivors right behind them.

The two women stopped as they reached Jacqui and the kids, but Caterina and the men hurried past them, over the line of tin cans that had been strung up to warn the camp about any unwanted visitors. They shuffled past the trees into a small clearing just outside of one of the tin can traps, where they paused. A walker was feeding on a doe there. Caterina could see two arrows similar to her own sticking out of the deer's hind, and one from its rib cage. She guessed someone had been hunting the deer, and the walker took advantage of the deer's wounds and attacked.

The walker didn't pay them any mind as they gathered around it, too busy gnawing way at the poor deer's neck. It wasn't until Caterina passed in the walker's sight that it noticed them. It growled as it staggered onto its feet, turning in a slow circle to look at them all.

It made to move towards Rick, who smacked it with some kind of pole. The walker was hit to the ground, and the men moved in. Caterina stood back as they took turns stabbing and pounding the walker into the ground. They didn't stop until Dale hacked the head off the body with an axe. Caterina relaxed slightly then, but she didn't lower her crossbow. She knew that the walker still wasn't dead , but it wouldn't be able to attack anyone now at least.

The men stepped away as they paused to catch their breath.

"It's the first one we've had up here," Dale said. "They never come this far up the mountain."

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what," Jim, another member of the group, pointed out.

Everyone looked up as a branch snapped somewhere behind Jim. Expecting it to be another walker, they all readied their weapons and moved a few steps forward, waiting for something to walk out of the brush and into the open.

They all sighed in relief when a living man stepped into sight.

"Oh Jesus…" Shane muttered.

Caterina finally lowered her crossbow as she observed this man. He was a white male, with brown hair and a bit of facial hair on his lip and chin. He had a slim build with an obvious bit of muscle, and blue-green eyes.

He didn't look like him at all, but Caterina could tell that this was Merle Dixon's brother. He had the same kind of arrogance as him, though he was pretty sure that this man's arrogance was more of a facade.

The man looked away from everyone to where the deer and the walker had fallen. "Son of a bitch," he grunted, and he made his way out into the small clearing. Caterina saw that he had a line of dead squirrels over his shoulder. "That's _my_ dear!" he cried. He moved around to the walker. "Look at it…all gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearin', motherless, proxy bastard!" he cried, kicking the corpse in frustration with each adjective.

"Calm down, son," Dale said. "That's not helping."

The man turned on Dale quickly. "What do you know about it, old man?" he spat. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond." He stalked back over to the deer and started pulling his arrows from the deer's body. "I've been tracking this deer for miles. I was gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do ya think? You think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" he asked, motioning around the deer's open throat.

"I would _not_ risk that," Shane answered.

The man sighed in disappointment. "That's a damn shame…" He turned to the group. "I got some squirrel—about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."

He started to walk away, but he paused when the walker's head started twitching on the ground.

"Oh God…" Amy almost gagged before being led away by Andrea.

"Come on, people, what the hell?" the man said as he turned back to where the head had fallen. He pulled his crossbow from where he'd strapped it to his shoulder and fired an arrow into the walker's eye, stilling it. He then braced his foot against the walker's forehead and pulled the arrow from its eye, similar to what Caterina had done with the little girl back when she and Rick had first met. "It's gotta be the brain," he reminded the others. "Don't y'all know nothin'?"

Caterina turned to watch the man as headed up to camp. She waited until he was almost out of sight before she turned back to the others. "I take it that's Daryl?" she asked sarcastically.

The others did not look amused.


	6. Chapter 5

Caterina followed the rest back to camp. She was suddenly dreading what would happen once they got back and started talking to Daryl Dixon. There was no telling how he would react to the news about his brother. He didn't really seem the type to get violent whenever he was upset, but Caterina figured that, since this _is_ Merle's brother, there was a good chance he would. And this guy was so obviously a hunter in the past, so he probably had quick reflexes. If they weren't careful, he could end up hurting somebody.

"Merle!" Daryl called as he strutted into camp. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up!"

"Daryl?" Shane called out to him as he placed his shotgun in the Jeep. "Just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."

Daryl stopped. "About what?"

"About Merle. There was a, uh…there was a problem in Atlanta."

He paused, glancing around the camp as if to look for his brother. When he didn't find him, Caterina saw his face drop slightly in despair. But he didn't let it show in his voice as he asked, "He dead?" He was obviously practiced at keeping on a mask, but Caterina saw through it easily, and she was sure that his mask would fall once his emotions started getting from with him.

"We're not sure," Shane admitted.

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl said, his voice rising.

Rick stepped forward then. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it," he said.

"Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes."

""Rick _Grimes_'"? Daryl repeated, his voice slightly sarcastic on his last name. "You got sumthin' you wanna tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there," Rick explained. He obviously felt no guilt in that. He had done the right thing in cuffing Merle, and he knew it. It was just the last bit that he was guilty about.

Daryl turned away from Rick. "Hold on," he said. His voice was shaking slightly now, and he had to wipe at his eyes. "Let me process this." When he turned back, Caterina saw that his eyes were a bit red. He was obviously holding back tears. "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there?" he yelled.

Rick paused before nodding. "Yeah."

Caterina saw it coming immediately. Daryl's chin was quivering slightly, and he was trying to hide it by frowning angrily at Rick. He took a few steps back, as if he were going to walk off, and then he tossed his line of squirrels at Rick.

Shane seemed to have seen it coming as well, because he tackled Daryl before he could take more than one step towards Rick. This just made Daryl angrier, and he pulled a Team Gemini Light Brigade knife from its holder at his waist. Rick started pacing around Daryl while Shane got into a defensive position, shuffling back a few steps.

"Watch the knife!" T-Dog cried.

Daryl rolled onto his feet and took a swing at Rick with the knife. Rick easily dodged it by taking a quick step back, and Daryl tried again. Rick grabbed his wrist this time and turned his hand away from him. Shane took this time to sneak up behind Daryl and grab him in a choke hold. While Daryl was struggling against Shane, Rick made him drop the knife by putting pressure on his wrist.

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl shouted.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't," Shane replied calmly as he lowered Daryl to the ground.

"Choke hold's illegal," he grunted.

"You can file a complaint." When Daryl just continued to struggle, even though his face was getting red and he was having to gasp for breath, Shane tightened his hold slightly. "Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."

Rick knelt down in front of Daryl, but he kept far enough back that he couldn't easily reach him. "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic," he said. "Do you think we can manage that?" When Daryl didn't respond, he just repeated himself more forcefully. "Do you think we can manage that?"

Daryl still didn't respond, but Shane seemed to think he'd calmed down enough because he nodded and let him go. He and Rick backed up a couple of steps while Daryl scooted back on the dirt. He pointed up at Shane threateningly while he struggled to catch his breathe. Caterina guessed that he was trying to threaten him, but he wasn't able to talk just yet. At any rate, he didn't really look too threatening, with his red face and lack of breathe.

Rick returned to Daryl's side, obviously deciding that he wasn't a threat anymore. "What I did was not on a whim," he continued now that Daryl wasn't trying to kill him. "Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"It's not Rick's fault," T-Dog spoke up, turning everyone's attention on him. "I had the key. I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl snapped. Guess he'd gotten his breathe back.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain," he explained.

Daryl snorted and slowly climbed back onto his feet, gripping a handful of dirt as he did. Once he was steady, he looked up at T-Dog and started walking along the side of the RV. "If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't," he said, tossing the handful of dirt to the side.

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof so the Geeks couldn't get at him—with a padlock."

Daryl just stared at him, obviously not really comforted by this.

"It's gotta count for something," Rick tried.

Daryl looked between him and T-Dog, and Caterina saw tears gathering in his eyes again. His face scrunched up slightly, and she noticed a tear escape the corner of his eye before he quickly wiped it away. "To hell with all of y'all!" he yelled.

T-Dog's shoulders dropped, as if he were disappointed.

"Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him," he demanded.

"He'll show you," Lori said from the doorway of the RV. "Isn't that right?"

Rick stared at her for a moment before turning back to Daryl. He nodded. "I'm goin' back."

Caterina stepped aside to avoid getting bumped as Daryl stormed past her, not even glancing at her. She was pretty sure that he hadn't really noticed her yet. He might have seen her back at the clearing, but it hadn't been more than just a pacing glance. He'd probably just seen another girl that needed protecting and another mouth that needed feeding and brushed her off. It was how a lot of people reacted to her, before they found out what she was capable of.

She watched as Daryl disappeared into a nearby tent before she turned to look at Rick, who returned her gaze before walking off himself—she assumed to get ready to go back to Atlanta. She wasn't sure what he planned on doing. All she knew was that she wasn't missing it.

She felt beyond guilty about what had happened to Merle. She wasn't sure if Merle was dead, but the thought of him being up there upset her. After all, they'd been the ones to abandon him up on that roof. As soon as she had gotten everyone back to camp safely, she should have gone back to help him. But she didn't, and she wasn't sure why that was. She supposed that it was due to all of the emotions that had been flowing through camp, when Rick had been reunited with his family and friends.

Her decision made, Caterina walked back into her tent and stooped down inside. She glanced about until she spotted all of the things she'd kept in the pockets of her cargo pants piled up in the far left corner. She crawled over and grabbed her hunting knife and its holster from the pile and strapped it to her thigh. She also grabbed her OTF automatic switchblade. Her father gave it to her when she told him that she'd signed up for the military. She'd essentially been following in his footsteps, and he couldn't have been prouder that his little girl would be taking a stand against the enemy in order to protect the lives of her family and her country.

Shaking the thoughts of her father from her head, Caterina crawled back out of her tent. She paused as she came upon an argument between Shane and Rick.

"Could you just tell me _why_?" Shane was begging him. "Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey," Daryl called from the fire pit. "Choose your words more carefully."

"Oh no, I did. Douche bag's what I meant," Shane replied. Caterina almost smiled, but she managed to keep her face straight. "Merle Dixon," he scoffed. "The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dyin' of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me," Rick said. "_I_ can't let a man die of thirst—me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."

"So you and Daryl?" Lori asked. "That's your big plan?"

Rick turned to Glenn expectantly.

Glenn sagged as he realized what Rick wanted. "Oh, come on…"

"You know the way," he explained. "You've been there before—in and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask—I know that—but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too," he added, motioning back to his wife.

"That's just great," Shane said. "Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?"

"Four," T-Dog corrected him.

Daryl looked back at T-Dog and scoffed, turning back to cleaning his arrows. "My day just keeps gettin' better and better, don't it?" he muttered.

"You see anybody else here steppin' up to save your brother's cracker ass?"

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

"That's four," Dale noted.

"It's not just four," Shane argued fervently. "You're puttin' every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. I mean, come on, you saw that walker. It was _here_. It was _in camp_. They're movin' outta the cities. They come back, we need every able body we got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to _protect_ camp."

"Seems to me what you really need most here are more guns," Rick countered.

"Right…" Glenn said, realizing what Rick was saying. "The guns…"

"Wait, what guns?" Shane inquired.

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns," Rick answered. "I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. Cat and I dropped the bag back in Atlanta when we got swarmed. It's just sittin' there on the street, waitin' to be picked up."

"And not just Rick's," Caterina spoke up for the first time since Daryl returned to camp. Everyone turned to her, and for once she wasn't bothered by all the attention. "I have some in that bag I left behind—five handguns, two shotguns. A few more hunting knives too."

"Ammo?" Shane asked.

"Seven hundred rounds, assorted," Rick replied.

"Plus my five hundred," Caterina added.

Shane shook his head, torn. He obviously saw how essential those weapons were, but he was torn between wanting those guns to protect camp and wanting enough people to protect camp. It seemed he would need to decide whether or not the guns were more important than the people, and which would help protect the camp more.

"You went through hell to find us," Lori reminded Rick. "You just got here, and you're gonna turn around and leave?" she said in disbelief.

"Dad, I don't want you to go," Carl said.

"To hell with guns," Lori went on. "Shane's right. _Merle Dixon?_ He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in."

Rick ran a hand through his hair and approached his wife, who stood to meet him.

"Tell me," she urged him. "Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met," Rick explained, "and his little boy."

Lori looked at Carl, as if to ask "what about him?"

"Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I would've died. It's because of them that I found Cat, and it's because of _her_ that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap we did if I don't warn him."

"What's stoppin' you?"

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag we dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."

"These are our walkies?" Shane asked from where he sat on the bumper of his Jeep.

Rick nodded. "Yeah."

"So use the CB," Andrea suggested. "What's wrong with that?"

"The CB's fine," Shane replied. "It's the walkie that suck to crap. They date back to the seventies. Don't match any other bandwidth, not even the scanners in our cars."

"I need that bag," Rick stressed. Lori looked off to the side, and Rick seemed to take this as a sign of her acceptance, because he moved on to where Carl was sitting and knelt down in front of him. "Okay?" he asked.

Carl stared at him for a moment and nodded. "All right."

* * *

Caterina kept to the side while Rick and the others got ready to leave. She still hadn't stepped up to volunteer to go with them. Actually, it was more like demand, because she wasn't going to take no for an answer. She understood where Shane was coming from, wanting them there, but she felt like she had to help rescue Merle. She didn't really understand it; it was just something that she felt she had to do.

So she would wait until everything was set up before she joined. She knew Rick would try to fight her if his protectiveness from last night was anything to go, and Daryl probably wouldn't be all too happy about her going either. She wanted to put off a fight until there wasn't any time left to waste.

She watched as Rick approached Dale and Jim, who were working on the RV.

"Rumor is you have bolt cutters," Rick said.

"Maybe," Dale replied evasively.

"We get to that rooftop though, we'll need to cut that chain," T-Dog explained, "and the handcuffs."

"I never like lending tools," Dale said. "The last time I did—and _yes_, I _am_ talking about you," he said, pointing at T-Dog. "Let's just say that your bags weren't the only bags that were dropped. My tools got left behind, with Merle."

"We'll bring your tools back too," Rick promised. "Think of the bolt cutters as an investment."

"Sounds like more of a gamble…" he muttered. But he still grabbed his bolt cutters from a nearby toolbox. He paused once he had them and looked up at Rick thoughtfully. "What do I get in return?" he asked.

"What do you want?"

"How about one of those guns you bring back. My pick."

Rick looked over at Caterina with a questioning look, silently asking if that was okay. She looked between him and Dale and nodded. It was fine with her. The guns would be distributed amongst the group anyway. Besides, it wasn't like she would be able to wield all of them at once. She might have a lot of pockets in her cargo pants, but that didn't mean she was going to stuff them full with guns and ammo.

Rick turned back to Dale and nodded. "Done."

Jim cleared his throat. "Uh, Dale, let's, uh…sweeten the deal a bit. Now, that cube van of yours…"

"What about it?"

"RV's radiator hose is shot. That's a problem if we need to get somewhere and wanna get very far, and the hose on that van is just about a perfect match. Well, enough that I can make it fit."

"I'll tell you what. We get back, you can strip that van down to the bare metal."

Caterina almost jumped as the van's horn started blaring.

"Come on, let's go!" Daryl called impatiently from the back of the van.

Dale and Rick ignored him as the bolt cutter changed hands.

"Thank you," Rick said with a slight smile.

Dale nodded with a smile of his own.

As Rick and T-Dog were heading for the cube van, Caterina saw her shot and moved to take it. She re-positioned the strap of her crossbow on her shoulder anxiously and approached the two of them before they reached the van.

"Hey," she called, stopping them. "I'm going with you."

Rick seemed to have been anticipating this, but he still started to shake his head. "Cat—"

"Rick," Caterina interrupted him, "I'm not just going to sit here playing guard dog while you all go back for Merle. It goes against everything I've been taught." When Rick still didn't look convinced, she stepped forward, her expression set and determined. "I never leave a comrade behind, Rick. Not if I can help it."

The two stared at each other, almost challenging each other.

Finally, Rick gave in. "All right," he acquiesced. "But no heroics, okay? If sumthin' goes wrong and you can get away, do it. Understood?"

"I can't promise that," Caterina said truthfully. She was reckless and she knew it, especially when it came to helping someone else.

Rick sighed, but he didn't argue any further. "Get in the van."

Caterina smiled triumphantly and brushed past him and T-Dog, heading to the back of the van. She stepped up onto the bumper and into the back where Daryl was. Daryl finally seemed to notice her, and he became agitated real quick as she climbed into the back of the van, armed with her crossbow and her knives.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up," Daryl said. "The hell do you think you're doin'?"

"She's comin' with us," Rick answered for her.

"Like hell she is," Daryl argued. "We'll have enough problems with the Asian. We don't need no woman to worry about too. I don't care if she _is_ armed. She's not comin' with us. She'll just slow us down, and we don't have any time to lose."

"I can take care of myself," Caterina said.

"Yeah, sure," he dismissed her, obviously doubting that.

"Trust me, we won't have to worry about her," Rick assured him before Caterina could be tempted to show Daryl just how well she could take care of herself. "She's more than capable."

"If you say so. But I ain't savin' her if her ass gets in trouble," he promised, motioning to Caterina with his crossbow as he settled in for the ride.

Caterina just rolled her eyes. She knew that was a lie. Daryl might like people to think that he was a hard ass, but Caterina could tell that he wasn't the type to just let someone get hurt if he could help it. She was willing to bet that he'd do everything he could to help her if she for some reason couldn't save herself, which she seriously doubted would happen. It was rare that she let her guard down in possibly dangerous situations.

She sent Rick an exasperated look before settling in across from Daryl, who was staring at her with distaste. She decided to just ignore him as much as she could, at least until he got that stick out of his ass.

"Hey, Rick," Shane called as he approached the van. "Got any rounds in the Python?"

"No," Rick said.

Shane set a duffle bag up on the van's bumper. "Last time we were on the gun range, I'm sure I wound up with a few loose rounds of yours," he said as he started ruffling through his bag.

Rick chuckled. "You and that bag—like the bottom of an old lady's purse."

"I hate that you're doin' this, man," Shane expressed, all joking aside. "I think that it's foolish and reckless. But if you're gonna go, you're takin' bullets."

"I'm not sure I'd wanna fire a shot in the city, not after what happened last time."

"That's up to you," he said. He pulled out a few bullets, and Caterina almost snorted at the irony of it when she saw five bullets in his hands. "Well…five men, five rounds. What're the odds, huh? Well, let's just hope that, uh… Let's just hope five is your lucky number, okay?"

Rick took the bullets. "Thank you."

Shane nodded, and he stepped back as Rick went around the van to the passenger seat.

* * *

Caterina was perfectly at home as she lounged next to T-Dog, between him and the back of Glenn's seat. The shakiness of the van as it drove on didn't bother her in the least. It was like being in the back of an army truck again. The terrain that they had driven over tended to be pretty rough, and she was often caught between two members of her squadron. It had been much less comfortable than it was in the back of the cube van, but she'd gotten used to it.

In fact, she grew to enjoy it. Her team would goof off and tell jokes the entire time they were back there, driving to wherever they were going. A lot of the times, they didn't know whether they were driving to war or to a new base. But they tried to make the best of every situation.

She'd loved her team. She was the only female, so of course her teammates tried to get close to her. She made and lost a lot of friends during her war days. There was only a handful that had survived up until her last day spent out on the battlefield. She wasn't sure what had become of any of them since this whole apocalypse thing started. She was sure that they'd been stationed at refugee centers, and maybe at the CDC, but there was no telling which ones. There was no way of knowing who was still alive and who had died, of who had survived and who had fallen victim to the sickness.

Caterina was jolted from her thoughts as the van was jostled particularly hard.

She mentally scolded herself for letting her thoughts venture back to her days in war. She already thought enough about the past. If she continued, she'd end up throwing herself into another depression.

"He'd better be okay," Daryl said threateningly. "It's my only word on the matter."

"I told you, the Geeks can't get at him," T-Dog repeated. "The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us."

Daryl didn't look entirely convinced, but he didn't say any more.

Glenn stopped the van and turned around to look at everyone. "We walk from here," he said.

Daryl was the first out, with Caterina and T-Dog right behind him. Caterina jumped down from the back of the van and followed the others along the train tracks towards a bend in the fence. They all ducked through, and Glenn led them further into the city. She made sure to keep to the back, her crossbow held at the ready. She couldn't help but feel like she was back with her troop in Iraq. She had been kept towards the back a majority of the time whenever they were sent out on missions. She knew that it was because she was a woman, although they told her that it was because she was one of their best shots. They often tried not to mention the difference in strength between men and women whenever she was around. They were always worried that she would get offended.

Honestly, it did offend her, but she always managed to prove them wrong some way or another.

Glenn un-linked a section of the fence on the edge of the road, under the bridge, and stepped aside to let the others through.

"Merle first or guns?" Rick asked Glenn, but Daryl was the one to reply.

"Merle! We ain't even havin' this conversation!"

"We are," Rick bit back emphatically. He turned back to Glenn. "You know the geography. It's your call."

"Merle's closest," Glenn agreed with Daryl. "The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first."

* * *

They snuck through the department store where they had been holed up before. Caterina and Daryl kept their crossbows ready as they followed behind Rick. They all knew that there were walkers in the store, but they didn't know where or how many.

Caterina stopped as she picked up the sound of shuffling footsteps from across the store. She looked at Rick, who turned to her and motioned for her to go forward. She nodded and moved away from the group. She snuck through the clothes rack until she was standing in the walker's line of sight. It slowed once it saw her before letting out a hungry snarl. It reached out towards her, and Caterina raised her crossbow and fired. The arrow pierced the walker right between the eyes, and the body fell with a light _thud!_

Caterina stepped over the body and yanked her arrow out of its head while the others followed her further into the store. She wiped the blackened blood off on her pants before knocking the arrow. She noticed Daryl staring at her from the corner of her eye, and she glanced at him curiously. She was more than satisfied to see the look of slight surprise on his face.

Rick gave Daryl a look that clearly said "I told you" before he led everyone to the stairs.

They hurried up the stairs to the roof, Rick in the lead. Luckily, any walkers that might have gone up to the roof had cleared, so they were able to reach the door without any problems. T-Dog went to the front and cut through the chain on the door. As soon as it was broken, Daryl tore it from the door and kicked open the door.

"Merle!" he shouted as he and T-Dog ran out onto the roof. "Merle!"

The others followed them onto the stairs, where everyone but Daryl stopped at what they saw.

On the floor where they had left Merle was a human hand lying in a pool of blood, next to a bloody handsaw. Caterina's heart dropped into her stomach. She could only guess from what was in front of her that Merle had cut off his hand to escape from the handcuffs, thinking he was on his own against an entire city of walkers.

They all stood and watched helplessly as Daryl went into hysterics.


	7. Chapter 6

Daryl hadn't snapped yet from what was in front of them, but Caterina felt that he was getting closer and closer to it. That was why, while Rick and T-Dog went to stand with Daryl, she stayed back with Glenn. She wasn't about to get in the middle of this. She wanted to stay part of the third-party, thank you very much.

Just as Caterina predicted, Daryl snapped and turned to aim his crossbow at T-Dog. Rick seemed to have expected it as well because, in the same moment, he pulled back the hammer on his Colt Python and aimed at the side of Daryl's head. Daryl froze, but he didn't take his eyes off of T-Dog, who looked far too calm for having a crossbow trained on him.

"I won't hesitate," Rick threatened forcefully. "I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."

Daryl squeezed his eyes shut (Caterina guessed to hold back tears) and lowered his crossbow almost shamefully. Rick kept his Python pressed to Daryl's temple for a moment, only lowering it once he had decided that Daryl had calmed down enough.

"You got a, uh…a do-rag or sumthin'?" Daryl asked.

T-Dog stared at him for a moment before pulling a blue bandanna from his pocket.

Daryl took it and leaned his crossbow against the pipes before kneeling down next to Merle's hand. He laid the bandanna out next to it. "I guess the, uh, saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs," he said aloud as he picked up Merle's hand by the pinkie. "Ain't that a bitch?" he muttered to himself. He placed the hand in the center of the bandanna and wrapped it up carefully.

Once it was safely confined in T-Dog's bandanna, Daryl stood and looked around at the others before focusing on Glenn, who was the only one with a backpack. He motioned for Glenn to come forward and opened his bag, dropping Merle's hand inside.

Daryl grabbed his crossbow and went back to the bloody scene to examine it. "He must've used a tourniquet," he continued. "Maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't." He started following the trail of blood to the other side of the roof.

Caterina exchanged a quick look with Rick before following after Daryl.

The trail of blood led them onto the connecting rooftop and into the next building. Daryl paused in the doorway to ready his crossbow before moving inside, and Caterina did the same as she followed behind him.

"Merle!" Daryl cried down the staircase. "You in here?"

Caterina didn't bother telling him to keep quiet as she followed him downstairs and into a hallway off of the main hall. It wasn't like he would listen to her anyway.

The two of them froze as they heard a light shuffling in the room to their right. She looked at Daryl and, once she had caught his gaze, motioned into the room. Daryl nodded and made his way into the room while Caterina stood guard outside. She waited until she heard him fire before she looked back at the others and motioned for them to follow her and Daryl as they moved on to the room at the end of the hall.

Daryl reached the room first, and Caterina stepped in behind him, looking around in surprise. There were two dead walkers lying on the floor—it looked like someone had bashed their heads in with a wrench, which had been discarded next to one of the bodies—and there were papers scattered all over the floor. The kills looked relatively fresh, which meant that it must've been Merle. It surprised her that he had enough strength after losing so much blood.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches, one-handed," Daryl bragged as he paused to knock an arrow. "Toughest ass-hole I've ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

"Any man could pass out from blood loss," Rick argued, "no matter how tough he is."

Caterina exchanged a look with Glenn before they and T-Dog followed Rick and Daryl further in. The trail of blood continued to lead them further and further. With the amount of blood that he had left behind, Caterina was surprised that they hadn't already stumbled upon him, having passed out from blood loss like Rick had said.

"Merle?" Daryl called as they paused in the doorway of what looked to be a small kitchen.

"We're not alone here," Rick reminded him in a low voice. "Remember?"

"Screw that," he huffed. "He could be bleedin' out. You said so yourself."

Caterina followed them inside. The smell of burnt flesh hit her as soon as she passed through the doorway. Curious, she brushed past Rick and Daryl and noticed Merle's belt on the counter, where there was a lot of blood splattered. Merle left a few burners on, and she saw a heating plate lying next to them by the sink. She noticed there was something burned on the hotplate, so she grabbed it to get a better look at it. She almost scrunched her nose in disgust when she realized what it was.

"What's that burned stuff?" Glenn asked as he moved up behind her.

"Skin," she answered. "He cauterized the stump."

"Told you he was tough," Daryl said from beside Caterina. "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith," Rick warned him. "He's lost a lot of blood."

"Yeah?" Daryl asked, moving towards the back of the kitchen. "Didn't stop him from breakin' outta this death trap."

Caterina placed the hotplate back down on the counter and walked with Glenn over to the window. One of the panes had been broken, creating a hole just large enough for Merle to have fit through. She was kind of surprised. Usually, the pain of cauterization would've caused someone to pass out. But not Merle, it seemed. He really was as tough as Daryl said.

"He left the building?" Glenn said in disbelief. "Why the hell would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Daryl retorted. "He's out there alone, as far as he knows. Doin' what he's gotta do, survivin'."

"You call that survivin'?" T-Dog asked. "Just wanderin' out in the streets, maybe passin' out? What are his odds out there?"

"No worse than bein' handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks," Daryl spat. "You couldn't kill him. I ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard."

"What about a thousand dumb dead bastards?" Rick countered. "Different story?"

"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna get him."

"Daryl, wait," Rick urged him, pushing him back from the window.

He slapped Rick's hand away. "Get your hands off me! You can't stop me!"

"I don't blame you," Rick tried to pacify him. "He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around, but only if we keep a level head."

"I could do that."

Rick nodded and looked over at T-Dog.

"Only if we get those guns first," T-Dog answered his unasked question. "I'm not strollin' the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?"

* * *

Everyone had gathered in what looked to be some kind of communal office (actually a lab, judging from the name plate that had been on the door). There were half a dozen desks, and papers had been scattered all around the room. Glenn had gathered a few items from the floor and was in the process of explaining how he thought that they should go about getting Rick's and Caterina's bags, using a black sharpie to draw a diagram of the area on the linoleum floor.

Caterina shook her head. "No way," she said.

"Cat's right," Rick agreed. "You're not doin' this alone."

"Even I think it's a bad idea," Daryl added, "and I don't even like you much."

Glenn rolled his eyes. "It's a good idea, okay? If you just hear me out… If we go here in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast. Look…" He placed a paper clamp in the main alley of his diagram. "That's the tank—five blocks from where we are now." He put down two crumpled sticky notes next to it. "Those are your bags." He motioned to the next alley. "Here's the alley I dragged you guys into when we first met. That's where Daryl, Cat, and I will go."

"Why us?" Daryl wondered.

"Your crossbows are quieter."

Caterina and Daryl glanced at each other, but Daryl was quick to look away. She was very tempted to tease him about it, and the uncomfortable look that he'd had on his face, but she decided against it. After all, if they were going to be working together, she wanted to maintain the relationship that she'd somehow managed to make with him thus far.

Instead, she exchanged worried looks with Rick. She still didn't entirely agree with Glenn's plan. Not because she didn't think it would work; more like because she was worried. Glenn wasn't exactly a warrior; he was a scavenger. He didn't thrive too well in battle situations, which was exactly what he would be throwing himself into if he went out there alone. Honestly, Caterina would feel better only if it were her or Daryl or Rick going out there to get the bags (since T-Dog was still hurting from his confrontation with Merle).

"While Daryl and Cat wait here in the alley," Glenn went on to explain, placing a container of white out strips in the alley he'd pointed to before, "I run up the street, grab the bags."

"But you've got us elsewhere?" Rick asked, motioning to himself and T-Dog.

"You and T-Dog—right," Glenn said. He grabbed an eraser and placed it in an alley that was two blocks from where Caterina and Daryl would be. "You two will be in this alley here."

"Two blocks away? Why?"

"I may not be able to come back the same way," Glenn explained. "Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to Daryl and Cat. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here," he finished.

"Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?" Daryl asked.

"Delivered pizzas," he replied, confused. "Why?"

Nobody said anything.

* * *

Caterina quickly descended down the same ladder that they had used when Glenn helped her and Rick when they first met, now between Glenn and Daryl. Once she was only a few steps from the ground, she let go of the ladder and fell to her feet. Glenn ushered her to the side, and Daryl dropped down just like Caterina had. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Caterina pulled her crossbow from her shoulder and hurried after Glenn down the alley, Daryl right behind her.

The three of them ducked behind dumpsters as they crept closer to the end of the alley where she and Rick had met Glenn. She stood directly behind Glenn, between two dumpsters, while he readied himself to run for it. Caterina already had one of her arrows knocked, in case any walkers got too close to Glenn while he was still in her line of sight.

"You got some balls for a Chinaman," Daryl complimented as he knocked one of his arrows.

"I'm Korean," Glenn corrected him.

"Whatever."

Caterina rolled her eyes. "Now boys, play nice or we'll turn around and go home," she chastised them sarcastically. Glenn grinned at her, appreciating the humor, while Daryl just gave her an odd look. She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

Daryl just shook his head and turned his gaze away from her.

She shrugged and raised her crossbow to eye level while Glenn took off out of the alley, closing the fence behind him. Once he was out of sight, Caterina and Daryl knelt down so that their figures were covered, but they held their crossbows tightly in hand, ready to fire if need be.

"So, your brother," Caterina said after a moment of silence. "You two were close?"

"About as close as two brothers could be, I guess," Daryl grunted in response. He obviously wasn't paying too much attention to her, but at least he'd been polite enough to reply.

Caterina looked over her shoulder at Daryl and just stared at him. He definitely wasn't at all like his brother. He was just as volatile, sure, but he was significantly more level-headed and rational than Merle. And although he distanced himself from everyone, Caterina could tell that he cared for others more than he would care to let on. Even if the others couldn't see it, she could. Caterina had always prided herself at being able to accurately read people.

Daryl noticed her staring and glared at her. "What?" he snapped.

"It's weird," she muttered, as if she were talking to herself. "Most siblings I've met, there at least some similarities between them. But you and Merle—the only thing similar about you is how you hold yourselves. You two are like night and day."

His glare hardened, and Caterina saw the mask fall over his face. "What would you know about it?"

She shrugged. "Not much, I guess. I'm just going off what I've seen so far."

Daryl opened his mouth—probably to tell her how wrong she was—but Caterina held up her hand to silence him. He shut up immediately, although he didn't look at all happy about being ordered around by a woman. But Caterina could hear light footsteps coming toward them from up the alley. She motioned for Daryl to keep still as she leaned to the side slightly to see if she could get a look at whoever, or whatever, it was. But it was too far back for her to see anything.

She looked back at Daryl, who seemed to have understood what was happening. He nodded, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Caterina stayed still for a second before jumping up onto her feet and aimed her crossbow at the oncoming figure.

"Whoa, don't shoot me!" a young male voice cried out.

Caterina relaxed slightly now that she knew that wasn't any threat, but she didn't lower her guard. She knew better than that. You never knew when someone was truly alone or when they were being backed up by a group of bandits. But still, she wasn't really the type to shoot kids, even if they were on the wrong side, so instead she let Daryl step out in front of her. He could take care of the kid; she would just cover his back.

"What do you want?" the boy asked.

"I'm lookin' for my brother," Daryl replied, his crossbow aimed directly at the kid's head. "He's hurt real bad. You seen him?"

Instead of answering, the young boy shouted past Daryl. "_Ayúdame!"_

"Shut up!" Daryl snapped, thrusting his crossbow closer to the boy. "You're gonna bring the Geeks down on us. Answer me!"

Caterina glanced back over her shoulder to see that the walkers across the street were starting to notice them. Guess it wasn't such a good idea to let Daryl handle it. She turned back. "Daryl," she called out, but Daryl didn't pay her any mind.

"Answer me," he repeated more forcefully, entirely focused on the kid.

"_Ayúdame!_" the boy shouted again. "_Ayúdame! Ayúdame!"_

"Daryl!" Caterina tried again, only to be ignored once more. But at least he seemed to have realized that all this talking was going to get them in trouble, because he smacked the kid in the face with his crossbow. Caterina cursed to herself stepped out from between the dumpsters to pull Daryl off the kid as he struggled to clamp his hand down over his mouth, but she stopped as she heard two more pairs of footsteps running towards them. They definitely did not belong to any walkers.

She turned towards the gate just in time to see two living men run into the alley. She grunted as one struck her in the arm with a baseball bat. The force knocked her into the dumpsters, and she dropped her crossbow. Since these weren't walkers but instead living humans, she decided to forgo grabbing it and instead got back onto her feet to fight back with her hands.

Before she had a chance to strike, the man swung at her again, so Caterina reached up and grabbed the thicker part before it could hit her. The man was shocked by her reflexes, and she took advantage of his pause and yanked the baseball bat out of his grasp and stomped him in the stomach. The man grunted and fell to the ground, and Caterina tossed the bat to the side. She glanced up as one more figure ran into the alley and relaxed when she saw it was Glenn. He had her and Rick's bags in hand, as well as Rick's patrol hat.

Caterina motioned for him to stay where he was as she turned to the sounds of fighting by where Daryl was. The other man had somehow gotten Daryl on the ground and was kicking him. Caterina hurried forward and tackled the man to the ground next to Daryl. She quickly positioned herself on top of the man so that she was straddling him, preventing him from an easy escape. While the man struggled beneath her, Caterina reared back her fist and decked him in the face. She felt the cartilage break under her knuckles and heard the crunch of the bone.

She pulled back to deliver a knockout punch, but paused when she heard Daryl's voice.

"Watch out!" he shouted.

Before she could react to his warning, Caterina was hit in the back of the head with what felt like a metal club. She grunted as she fell onto her side. Her vision had become blurred from the hit, and she had to blink a few times to hold back nausea. There was a horrible throbbing in the back of her head, and she could feel something wet where she'd been hit. She didn't have to put her hand back there to know that it was blood.

"That's it!" an unfamiliar voice shouted. The voice sounded far away, but it made Caterina's head throb even more. "That's the bag, _vato_! Take it! Take it!"

Caterina could vaguely hear what sounded like Glenn's voice yelling, and her protective instincts kicked into gear despite her injury. She struggled to get to her feet (which was actually fairly hard to do, since she was feeling sluggish and weak). Once she was standing up, she took a single step forward only to stumble into the alley wall when her head started to spin.

"Get off me!" she could hear Glenn yelling. "Get off me! Daryl! Cat!"

Caterina closed her eyes for a moment to stave off the dizziness and pushed herself from the wall. She forced herself towards the mouth of the alley where she could hear Glenn. But she wasn't able to move quickly enough, and Glenn was dragged out of the alley. A car pulled up next to the two men holding Glenn.

"Cat!" Glenn cried one more time before he was thrown into the car.

She could only watch as the car sped off.

Her heart sunk as she realized that she'd just let a friend get taken, and she stepped out of the alley to watch as the car flew down the road. "Glenn!" she shouted. She made to go after them, but came to her senses when she saw all of the walkers that had been attracted to the noise.

"Come back here!" Daryl yelled as he came up behind Cat. "You sumbitches!"

"Go back!" Caterina said as the walkers moved towards them. She turned and followed Daryl back into the alley, and the two pulled the gate shut before any of the walkers could get in.

As soon as they were safe, Caterina was hit with another wave of vertigo, and she fell back into the wall again. She wasn't able to brace herself as her knees gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. Daryl looked down at her in worry, but Caterina didn't see it as she'd closed her eyes against the dizziness and was struggling to take deep, steadying breathes.

"You all right?" Daryl asked calmly to cover his concern.

"'M fine…" she muttered back, but Daryl knew that was a load of bull. Her face was as white as a sheet, and he could see a bit of blood on the wall behind her from where she slid down. He'd seen her get hit by the bat, but he'd been too busy shooting the man who'd attacked her in the ass to see what damaged it had caused.

Once the dizziness was gone, Caterina opened her eyes and started to climb back onto her feet. She paused as a coarse and dirtied hand was held out in front of her. She took it gratefully, and Daryl pulled her onto her feet. As soon as she was stable, Daryl pulled his hand back and took a few steps away from her. There was no way he was going to let himself get soft over this girl who he barely even knew. He'd already gone against his word about not helping her when he shot the man who hurt her. But he just played that off as payment for her helping him out earlier by tackling the guy who'd been kicking him.

Caterina threw a glance up the alleyway to where the kid was now standing.

She exchanged a look with Daryl, who had followed her gaze. She knew instantly what he wanted to do from the angry look in his eye. This time, she was just as angry as he was, so she nodded her agreement. Besides, even if she wasn't thinking the same thing, she was in no condition to try and stop him. She could barely even stand on her own, for Christ's sake.

Daryl had only managed to throw the kid into the wall when Rick and T-Dog came running into the alley from the other end. They spotted Daryl and the boy first, and Rick hurried forward to hold Daryl back while T-Dog took hold of the kid.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop it!" Rick yelled.

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!" Daryl snapped as he tried to get around Rick.

"Let me go!" the boy squeaked as he struggled against T-Dog.

"Chill out!" T-Dog snapped, and the boy instantly stopped fighting. He looked beyond frightened. Caterina could even see tears gathering in his eyes, and she instantly felt bad for the kid. He hadn't asked to get in the middle of all this. He'd probably just been sent out as a scout.

"They took Glenn," Daryl told the others as he continued to try and get around Rick. "That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends! I'm gonna stomp your ass!"

"Guys!" T-Dog called over Daryl's voice as he noticed all the walkers gathered at the fence behind Caterina. "Guys! We're cut off!"

"Get to the lab," Rick ordered. "Go."

Caterina stepped away from the wall and stooped down to grab her military pack, which she'd only just noticed was lying on the ground at her feet along with Rick's duffle bag and his hat.

"Come on!" Daryl urged everyone. "Damn, let's go!"

Caterina slid the strap of her pack over her shoulder and moved to follow after T-Dog and the kid, but she was forced to a stop as Daryl moved out in front of her, her discarded crossbow in his hand.

She took it from him. "Thanks," she muttered. She wasn't really in the right mindset to be surprised by his consideration. She glanced back over her shoulder at Rick, who was grabbing his bag and his hat. "Let's go," she pressed before jogging off towards the lab.

* * *

Back at the lab, Caterina stood leaning against the wall next to where they'd set the boy down. Rick and T-Dog had yet to realize that she had been hurt, and she wanted to keep it that way.

The bleeding had pretty much stopped, but her head was still throbbing with every little sound and she still felt a bit nauseous. She was able to ignore all of that for the most part. The nausea wasn't enough to really bother her, and she had experienced worse pain in the past. Next to that, the pain in her head was practically nothing.

"Those men you were with—we need to know where they went."

"I ain't tellin' you nothin'," the boy said. He seemed to have calmed down once they were off the streets and indoors. The combination of them and walkers had probably freaked him out. But, now that it was just them, he didn't seem so scared.

"Jesus, man," T-Dog muttered. "What the hell happened back there?"

"I told you! This little turd and his douche bag friends came outta nowhere and jumped us," he said, motioning between him and Caterina.

"You're the one who jumped me, _puto_," the boy argued, and Caterina almost smiled at the last bit. She'd taken enough Spanish to know what that meant. "Screamin' about tryin' to find his brother like it's my damn fault."

"They took Glenn. Coulda taken Merle too," Daryl reasoned.

"'Merle'?" the boy scoffed. "What kinda hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle."

This pissed Daryl off, and Rick had to jump in once again as Daryl went to attack the boy. Daryl managed to reach his leg past Rick, but he'd been pushed bar far enough that it didn't hit him—it just hit the chair.

"Damn it, Daryl! Back off!" Rick ordered as he pushed him back.

Daryl paused for a moment to calm down before walking over to the backpack that Glenn had left behind. As soon as he pulled out T-Dog's bandanna, Caterina understood what he was about to do.

"Wanna see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" he asked somewhat calmly. He kept his back to the boy as he unwrapped the bandanna. He rolled Merle's hand out into his own, and he glanced up at Rick as if to challenge him to stop him before turning around and tossing the hand into the boy's lap.

As soon as the boy realized what it was, he freaked out and jumped out of his seat. He backed up to where Caterina was standing, and she reached out and caught him by his shoulders before he could fall into her. Daryl started after the boy again, and Caterina stepped around him carefully and reached out to place her free hand on Daryl's chest in an attempt to keep him at bay.

"Daryl," she said warningly, but he pretty much ignored her.

"I'll start with the free this time!" Daryl threatened.

"Daryl, back off!" she snapped, and she shoved Daryl on the chest, not hard enough to make him stumble back but enough to get his attention. He finally looked away from the boy and down to her eyes, and he seemed to calm down almost instantly. He backed up a few steps, and Caterina nodded approvingly as she stepped around the boy so that she was standing between him and Daryl. "Look, _mijo_," she spoke in a soothing voice. "The men you were with took our friend. All we want to do is talk to them, see if we can't work something out."

The boy looked hesitant, but he seemed to calm down after staring at Caterina for a moment. He nodded, and Caterina smiled.

* * *

Caterina peeked through a broken, barred up window to the warehouse on the other side. The boy, Miguel, had said this was where his group had taken up residence once the epidemic had started. It only stood to reason that it was where they were keeping Glenn.

She glanced around the yard to look for guards. When she didn't find any, she turned back to her group. "It's all clear," she informed them.

Rick nodded and turned to T-Dog. "You sure you're up for this?"

T-Dog nodded, although he looked hesitant. After Rick had taken a shotgun from his bag, T-Dog grabbed his and Caterina'd bag and walked off. Rick had come up with a brilliant idea of positioning T-Dog up on the roof of a nearby building with a sniper rifle, just in case things went south while they were talking to Miguel's group.

"One wrong move, you get an arrow in the pass," Daryl threatened Miguel while Rick readied his shotgun. "Just so you know."

"G's gonna take that arrow outta my ass and shove it up yours," Miguel countered. "Just so _you_ know."

Caterina smirked up at Daryl, who glared down at her, obviously not amused. He _really_ needed to get that stick taken out of his ass. Come to think of it, a lot of people had gotten sticks stuck far up their asses since this apocalypse thing started. At least Caterina had managed to maintain her sense of humor with all of this. But, then again, she was used to times of war.

'"G'?" Rick asked.

"Guillermo," Miguel explained. "He's the man here."

"Okay then. Let's go see Guillermo."

Rick motioned for Caterina to go first, and she crouched through the hole that someone had made in the bars over the window. She went out a few steps to scope the area a bit more thoroughly before she motioned for the others to follow. Rick was the first to come out after her, followed by Miguel. Caterina reached out for the boy and ushered him out in front of her. She kept two steps behind him as he made his way to the warehouse doors, careful not to lose her footing. She still hadn't quite recovered from earlier. She was positive that she'd gotten a concussion, but it was mild enough that she didn't have to worry about any brain damage other than maybe some bruising.

She was kind of surprised that Daryl hadn't said anything about it to the others. After all, he'd seen her get hit, and he'd seen how it had affected her afterwards.

Miguel stopped several yards in front of the door, and Caterina took up position behind him. Daryl and Rick stepped up behind her on both sides. She could practically feel the tension coming off of the both of them, and she knew that they would both be observing the yard and building while they kept their weapons trained on the doors.

Caterina raised her crossbow as the warehouse doors opened. It was dark inside, but she could see a group of men gathered there, just outside of the light. Only one men stepped outside. Caterina guessed that he was Guillermo, the man that Miguel said was the leader of their group.

"You okay, little man?" Guillermo asked.

"They're gonna cut off my feet, _carnal_," Miguel answered in a shaky voice. Guess he _was_ still afraid of Daryl...

Guillermo looked past Miguel at Rick. "Cops do that?" he asked.

"Not him," Miguel said. "This redneck _puto_ here," he corrected him as he turned and motioned to Daryl. "He cut off some dude's hand, man. He showed it to me!"

"Shut up," Daryl barked.

"That's that _vato_ right there, homes," one of the men inside said. He stepped out into the light, and Caterina recognized him as the one who'd hit her with the bat. He was now aiming a Smith and Wesson Model 10 at Daryl. "He shot me in the ass with an arrow, man. What's up, homes? Huh?"

Guillermo reached out and pushed down the man's arm. "Chill, _use_, chill," he said. He looked up at Daryl before turning his gaze back on Rick. "This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick, man."

"We were hopin' more for a calm discussion," Rick said.

"That hillbilly jumps Felipe's little cousin, beats on him, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass, Jorge gets a broken nose, and you want a calm discussion?" Guillermo shook his head. "You fascinate me."

"Heat of the moment," Rick explained. "Mistakes were made, on both sides."

"Who's that dude to you anyway?" Guillermo wondered, nodding to Daryl. "You don't look related."

"He's one of our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like him."

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl asked, gazing past everyone into the warehouse. It was too dark to see anything but the outlines of Guillermo's group, but he looked anyway.

"Sorry, fresh outta white boys," Guillermo said. "But I've got Asian. Interested?"

"I have one of yours, you have one of mine," Rick reminded him. "Sounds like an even trade."

"Don't sound even to me," he argued.

"G," Miguel chuckled nervously. "Come on, man."

Guillermo ignored him. "My people got attacked," he said. "Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?"

"Guns?" Rick asked.

"The bag Miguel saw in the street," he explained. "The bag that Felipe and Jorge were going back to get. That bag of guns."

"You're mistaken."

"I don't think so."

"About it being yours. It's my bag of guns."

"That bag was in the street. Anybody could come around and say it was theirs. I'm supposed to take your word?" He scoffed. "What's to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what's mine?" he asked, motioning to the other man on his side. He was aiming his gun explicitly at Caterina. She didn't need to ask to know why. She could tell from his broken nose.

The rest of Guillermo's men all raised their weapons and took a step forward.

"You could do that," Rick said, not at all intimidated. He looked pointedly to where T-Dog was positioned, prompting Guillermo to turn and look as well. "Or not."

Guillermo just smirked. "_Oye!"_

Caterina slowly looked up to the roof of the warehouse so she wouldn't throw off her balance. She watched as two men pulled Glenn up to the edge of the roof. They removed the bag over his head, showing that Glenn had been bound and gagged. Caterina could clearly see the look of panic and fear on Glenn's face from where she stood on the ground.

She calmly lowered her gaze back down to Guillermo. She had a feeling that this man wasn't the type to let his men kill someone in cold blood, even in the world they were in now.

"I see two options," Guillermo said. "You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come back locked and loaded. We'll see which side spills more blood."


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:**

Hey everyone! Thank you all so much for all the reviews and favorites. I'm really surprised that this story is doing so well!

I'm sorry if this chapter is a little short. I didn't want to get in to the next part and then cut it off, so I decided to just finished up _Vatos_.

* * *

Caterina stood with Rick at one of the desks, looking down at his bag of guns. They had to decide quickly what they were going to do about it if they were going to get back to camp before dark. It was getting far too late to think about looking for Merle any longer. If they were lucky, they would be able to search a block or two before they needed to head dark, but that was looking more unlikely by the minute with everything that had gone wrong.

She would volunteer to stay in the city over night to look for him while the others went back to the camp, but she wasn't in any condition to do so. Her headache had lessened considerably, and she wasn't feeling as nauseous, but her balance was still a little off and she was having a bit of trouble concentrating for too long. Not to mention that she was now in serious need of another good night's sleep.

"Them guns are worth more than gold," Daryl commented as Rick started going through his guns. "Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table. You willin' to give that up for that kid?"

"If I knew we'd get Glenn back, I might agree," T-Dog put in his two cents. "But you think that _vato_ cross the way is just gonna hand him over?"

"You callin' G a liar?" Miguel demanded from where he sat on the floor next to T-Dog.

Daryl spun on Miguel as soon as he opened his mouth. "Are you a part of this?" he snapped. He stalked over and leaned over the kid before smacking him upside the head. "You wanna hold on to your teeth?"

"Daryl," Caterina called out in warning. Daryl looked up almost hesitantly, and she shook her head, silently warding him from taking any more of his anger out on Miguel. She understood that he was more than upset, what with Merle having gone missing and Glenn being taken, but that wasn't any excuse to abuse Miguel like that. He was just a kid who'd gotten thrown in the middle of something he probably didn't even fully understand.

"Question is, do you trust that man's word?" T-Dog asked once Daryl had backed away from Miguel.

"No, question is what are you willin' to bet on it?" Daryl countered. "Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?"

Rick and Caterina exchanged looks. They didn't need to say anything to know what the other was thinking. Of course Glenn was worth it. After all, he'd saved their lives, even though they'd been nothing but strangers to him, and even at the risk of his own life. Things easily could've gone sour, and he could have been taken down by walkers along with the two of them.

"What life Cat and I have, we owe to him," Rick explained. "We were nobody to Glenn—just two idiots stuck in a tank. He could've walked away, but he didn't. Neither will I."

"Nor me," Caterina agreed.

"So you're gonna hand the guns over?" Daryl asked.

"I didn't say that," Rick answered slyly.

A look of understanding passed over Daryl's face as he realized what Rick was thinking.

Rick looked between him and T-Dog. "There's nothin' keepin' you two here," he said. "You should get out, head back to camp."

"And tell your family what?" T-Dog asked.

Caterina looked up at Rick, who returned her gaze. She stared at him for a moment before nodding, as if he'd just asked her to do something.

She slipped the strap of her crossbow over her shoulder and walked over to where T-Dog had placed her pack against the wall. She knelt down and started digging through it while Rick continued rummaging through his own bag. Caterina pulled a Model 870 Modular Combat Shotgun from the inside of her pack and pumped it once, already knowing that there was one shotgun shell still in the round, before standing to load a few more shells.

While she did this, Daryl and T-Dog joined Rick to pick out guns from his collection.

"Oh come on, this is nuts," Miguel spoke up once he realized what they were doing. He stood up, only to sit back down when Daryl turned to glare at him. He ran his hands over his face. "Just do like G says," he pleaded.

No one said anything as they continued loading their guns.

* * *

They returned to the warehouse several minutes later. This time, to make it appear as if they meant business, they had Miguel bound and gagged. Daryl had taken up position as his guard, holding a Remington Model 870 Wingmaster to his back, while Caterina stood between T-Dog and Rick. She had chosen to take just her shotgun and crossbow, which she had fastened to her back. She refused to go anywhere without it, just in case she ran out of ammo and needed to resort to another weapon (perhaps a quieter one).

…Yeah, she was a bit paranoid.

It seemed that Guillermo and his men were expecting them, because the warehouse doors opened as soon as they got close. Daryl shoved Miguel inside before following him, Cat, Rick, and T-Dog right behind him. They gathered in the center of the warehouse, which looked to still be in use as a sort of garage.

Guillermo stepped up to meet them.

"I see my guns," he said, nodding to the duffle bag on Rick's back, "but they're not all in the bag."

"That's because they're not yours," Rick retorted. "I thought I mentioned that."

Felipe—the man that had given Caterina her concussion, and the man Daryl had shot in the ass—stepped up next to Guillermo. "Let's just shoot these fools right now, _ese_. All right?" he muttered to his leader. "Unload on their asses, _ese_."

Guillermo motioned for Felipe to step back, never taking his eyes off of Rick. "I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation," he pointed out.

"No, I'm pretty clear," Rick argued. He lowered his gun so he could grab Daryl's knife from where he kept it strapped to his waist. He cut through the bonds on Miguel and shoved the kid toward his group. "You have your man," he said. "I want mine."

Guillermo stared at Rick thoughtfully for a moment. "I'm gonna chop up your boy," he decided. "I'm gonna feed him to my dogs. They're the evilest, nastiest, man-eating bitches you ever saw. I picked 'em up from Satan at a yard sale."

The two seemed to stare each other down.

"I told you how it has to be. Are you woefully deaf?" Guillermo snapped.

"No, my hearin' is fine," Rick assured him. "You said come locked and loaded?" He cocked his Remington Model 870, Daryl and Caterina following his example. This caused a chain reaction, as everyone raised their weapons. "Okay then," he said forcefully. "We're here."

Caterina blinked as a rather out of place voice spoke up.

"Felipe! Felipe!"

She turned her eyes towards the voice and was surprised when she saw an elderly woman shuffling through the group of men towards the front, where Felipe and Guillermo were standing. Caterina had already had her suspicions that these men weren't as rough as they liked to appear, but for them to have an old woman in their group? She hadn't met very many groups that had readily accepted the responsibility of taking care of any elderly people.

Felipe took a step back towards the woman, moving so that he was standing in front of her, but he didn't take his eyes off of Rick and the others. "_Abuela_, go back with the others," he ordered her. "Now."

"Get that old lady outta the line of fire!" Daryl demanded.

"_Abuela_, listen to your _mijo_, okay?" Guillermo said. "This is not the place for you right now."

"Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing," the older woman went on to explain to Felipe, either not fully understanding the situation or not caring. "He needs his asthma stuff. Carlito didn't find it. He needs his medicine."

Caterina lowered her gun as she realized something. These men weren't just survivors; they were guards.

That explained why they were so desperate to get Rick's guns, especially if they had medicine. With the world as it was now, the key to survival was to have plenty of food, weapons, and medicine to keep yourself in top shape. These men probably needed the guns to protect the others from thieves.

Guillermo looked between Rick and the older woman. "Felipe, go take care of it, okay?" he ordered, obviously frustrated. "And take your grandmother with you."

Felipe nodded. "_Abuela, con comigo, por favor,"_ he said, ushering the woman away. But she didn't seem to want to go now.

Instead, the woman looked at Rick and his group. "Who are these people?" she wondered. She took a few steps towards them, and Felipe tried to pull her back, but she just shrugged out of his grasp and continued to walk up to Rick.

"_Por favor, con comigo,_" Felipe urged her, but she didn't listen.

"Don't you take him," the woman said to Rick forcefully.

"Ma'am?" Rick asked, beyond confused.

"Felipe's a good boy," she continued. "He have his trouble, but he pull himself together. We need him here."

Rick looked at Caterina, as if to ask if she were hearing and seeing the same thing as him. Caterina just shrugged. The woman seemed to think that Rick was there to arrest her grandson. It wasn't too hard to see why she thought that. Rick _was_ still dressed in his uniform. If the woman wasn't fully aware of what had been going on in the world, she would think that the government was operational.

"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest your grandson," Rick assured her.

"Then what do you want him for?" the woman inquired.

"He's helping us find a missing person," Caterina explained when Rick didn't answer immediately. "A man named Glenn."

Rick nodded to Caterina gratefully.

"The Asian boy?" the woman asked, seeming to know who Caterina was talking about. "He's with Mr. Gilbert." She reached out and grabbed Rick's hand. "Come. Come, I show you." She started to lead Rick through the men, pausing to look up at Felipe. "He needs his medicine."

"Let 'em pass," Guillermo ordered his men as the woman continued to lead Rick towards the back of the warehouse.

Caterina exchanged a hesitant look with Daryl before the two followed after them, along with Felipe and T-Dog (as well as a few more of Guillermo's men).

* * *

The woman led them through a small yard in the back of the warehouse and up to a building on the other side of a chain link fence. A large man was standing guard outside of the building, wielding a lead pipe. Caterina nodded to him as she followed Rick and the elderly woman into the building.

As they moved into the building, Caterina noticed an older woman in the hallway, as well as a few younger people. Growing more curious by the second, she glanced into an open door on the right. It looked to be a medical examination room (there was an exam table and everything), and inside was another elderly woman being handed a small cup of what she assumed was liquid medicine by a young woman.

Felipe stepped up to the front where his grandmother was. "_Abuela, por favor._ Take me to him."

His grandmother dropped Rick's hand and took up Felipe's as she continued further inside.

Caterina continued to follow them, almost smirking when she saw Felipe limping. She just couldn't help but hold a slight grudge for giving her that concussion. She'd been told multiple times by her brother that she had a temper which rivaled that of a lioness, just like their mother. And she could hold a grudge longer than anyone, though she tried not to let it come to that. She tried to just brush off anything that didn't seem that important. Not that it always worked.

As they walked, Caterina continued to glance into every open room. Inside each one of them were even more elders with varying degrees of frailty.

Caterina tilted her head towards Daryl, who was walking beside her, and whispered, "Is this an old folk's home?"

"Looks like it," Daryl muttered back.

The woman led them into what looked to be a sort of theater room slash dining area. Circular tables were set up throughout the room, and there was a grand piano at the back of the room, next to the stage. There were even more elders gathered there, a few of which were gathered around an elderly black man in the middle of the room. This was where Felipe's mother took him.

Among this group was Glenn, who was staring worriedly at the man. He looked to be having a mild asthma attack.

Caterina went to stand between Glenn and Felipe's grandmother while Felipe moved to the man's side and handed him an asthma inhaler. "All right. It's okay," he soothed the man. "Nice and easy. Just breathe. Just let it out. Just breathe."

"What is this?" Caterina asked, her attention shifting away from the man now that he was being treated.

"An asthma attack," Glenn explained, obviously missing what she was talking about. "Couldn't get his breath all of a sudden."

"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man," T-Dog barked irritably.

Glenn turned to look at something, and Caterina followed his gaze over her shoulder to where three Chihuahuas were lying in a leopard-printed dog bed in the corner of the room.

She turned back to the group and ran an agitated hand over her face. This was all too complicated for her, especially being in the condition that she was in. She brushed past Rick and walked up to where Guillermo was now standing. "Could I have a word with you?" she commanded more than asked. "Please?"

Guillermo nodded, and the two of them moved away from the group.

"You have got to be the _dumbest_ son of a bitch I have ever met,: she snapped in a low voice once they were far enough away that the others couldn't overhear. "We walked in here ready to kill every last one of you!"

"Well, I'm glad it didn't go down that way," Guillermo said casually.

"If it had, that blood would be on our hands," she said, motioning to herself and Rick.

"Mine too," he said. "We'd have fought back. Wouldn't be the first time we've had to. Protect the food, the medicine—what's left of it." He gestured to the room. "These people? The old ones? The staff took off. Just left 'em here to die. Me and Felipe were the only ones who stayed."

"Are you doctors?" she asked more calmly.

"Felipe's a nurse—a special care provider. Me? I'm the custodian."

Caterina nodded slowly. "Right…" She glanced around the room. "Is there anywhere we can talk more privately?" she asked.

"Sure."

She whistled to get her groups' attention and motioned for them to follow her and Guillermo as they walked out of the theater room.

* * *

Guillermo took them to the back of the building and into what looked to be the custodial office. Caterina guessed that it was where he felt the most comfortable, since he'd worked there before the whole world went to shit. Now that he was leading so many people, he probably needed somewhere he could relax, and this was probably it.

"What about the rest of your crew?" Caterina asked as the others gathered inside. "Who are they?"

"The _vatos_ trickle in," Guillermo explained. "To check on their parents, their grandparents… They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind—plunderers; the kind that take by force."

"That's not who we are," Rick said.

"How was I to know? My people got attacked, and you show up with Miguel hostage. Appearances."

"Guess the world changed," T-Dog said.

"No," Guillermo disagreed. "It's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The _vatos_ work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something. So, we barred all the windows, wielded all the doors shut—except for one entrance. The _vatos_, they go out, scavenge whatever they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day, and we wait." He paused. "The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why."

"Because they can," Caterina said strongly.

She twirled her shotgun in her hand so that her finger was no longer near the trigger, and she handed it over to Guillermo. He took it almost hesitantly, as if he expected her to just change her mind. She looked over her shoulder at Rick, who was still holding his bag of guns. Rick just stared at her for a moment before taking the bag off his shoulder. Caterina smiled and stepped aside to let him place the bag on the table she'd been leaning against.

* * *

With Glenn safely back in their group, they trekked back to where they'd parked the cube van. The sun was starting to set, so they needed to get back to camp. Caterina was surprised that Daryl wasn't complaining about leaving his brother for one more night. But she supposed that he understood it wouldn't do any good for them to continue to look for him in the dark. Not only was it dangerous, but it would be hard to track Merle through the city without any light, no matter how good a tracker any of them were.

"Admit it—you only came back to Atlanta for the hat," Glenn joked.

Rick smiled slightly. "Don't tell anybody," he replied wittily.

Caterina chuckled at the exchange, and T-Dog smiled. The only one who didn't seem amused was Daryl—surprise, surprise!

"You've given away half our guns and ammo," Daryl pointed out.

"Not nearly half," Rick argued.

"For what?" he continued as if Rick hadn't spoken. "Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?"

"How long do any of us have?" Caterina threw back.

The five of them stopped short as they rounded an abandoned city bus under the bridge where they had come in. They stared blankly at the barren train tracks in front of them, right where they had parked the cube van when they arrived.

"Oh my God…" Glenn muttered.

"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl asked rhetorically.

"We left it right there," Glenn said. "Who would take it?"

"Merle," Rick answered confidently. It was the only logical explanation. Apart from the group that they'd just met, as far as they knew, there weren't any other survivors in Atlanta. And Guillermo's men didn't seem like they were going to leave any time soon.

"He'' gonna be takin' some vengeance back to camp," Daryl warned.

"Then we'd better get back," Caterina said. "Now."

* * *

Caterina managed to lead the group back to camp, all five of them moving at a light sprint. She had memorized the route from when they first made their way up there from Atlanta (as well as from their trip back). But unfortunately, since they were now on foot, it was taking them much longer to get back. It took them until nightfall to get close to camp.

They were silently jogging along the dirt path when Caterina heard something that made her heart drop. It was the sound of screams and gunshots coming from the direction of the camp.

"Oh my God…" Rick muttered fearfully.

"Rick! My shotgun!" Caterina called as she hurriedly strapped her crossbow to her back. Rick took her MCS from his bag and tossed it to her. She caught it easily and pumped it before taking off to camp. "Come on!"

"Go! Go!" Glenn urged the others as they followed after Caterina.

It seemed like forever before they broke through the line of trees surrounding their camp. As soon as she had, Caterina's eyes flew around the camp. In a split second, she was able to determine that quite a few walkers had managed to make their way to their camp, and already some of their group had fallen victim to them.

Caterina heard a guttural sound on her right, and she jumped into action. She lifted her shotgun and turned just as a walker came up on her. She shot a round into its head, causing a bit of its blackened blood to splatter onto her clothes. She wasn't bothered by this, however, as she hurried further into camp, shooting whatever walker she could see.

She turned to shoot another walker, but she paused for a brief moment when she recognized it from when she and Rick had first reached Atlanta. She recovered from her surprise rather quickly, and she fired. But there was now a sinking feeling in her stomach.

If that walker was there, it meant that the others were from the city as well.

Caterina had been thrown in combat mode as she continued to shoot every walker within her sights. She didn't stop until she realized that all of the walkers were on the ground, and the only sound of gunfire was now hers. She lowered her shotgun slightly, but she didn't let her guard down. There was no telling whether or not there were more walkers out in the forest, and how many of them had heard their gunshots.

She spotted Glenn standing not too far from her, panting. He looked extremely pale, so she made her way over to him. She reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Glenn nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Come on," she muttered as she dropped her arm and started making her way up to where the others were gathered near the Winnebago. She slowed to a stop, however, when she spotted Andrea crouched down next to the RV, a bloody Amy lying in front of her.

"No!" Andre was crying. "Amy! Amy! Amy!"

"I remember my dream now," Jim puffed. "Why I dug the holes."


	9. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:**

I'm not so sure about how this chapter turned out. I'm a bit tired, so it probably isn't up to the same quality as my other chapters. But, then again, an author is their own worst critic!

Thanks, by the way, for the review, War With Faith. I'm glad you like the story so far!

* * *

Caterina worked throughout the night with a few of the men to clean up the mess that had become their camp. They needed to get rid of all the bodies in order to keep those who were left alive from getting sick. So Daryl went around putting a pickax through each corpses' head, just to ensure that they would stay dead, before Caterina and the others dragged them away to pile them up at the edge of camp.

While they worked on cleaning up the camp, Rick had gathered around one of the fire pits with the other surviving members. "She still won't move?" he asked, staring over at where Andrea was still knelt down over her sister's body.

"She won't even talk to us," Lori said. "She's been there all night. What do we do?"

"We can't just leave Amy like that," Shane sighed. "We need to deal with it, same as the others."

Rick ran his hand over his face. He knew that they had to deal with it, but it was obvious that Andrea was in a state of denial. It would be hard to get her away from Amy.

"I'll tell her how it is," he offered after a moment.

"I wouldn't," Caterina warned as Rick moved towards Andrea.

"We can't just leave it."

Caterina shrugged. If Rick wasn't going to listen to her, he would just have to find out for himself how desperate Andrea was to keep Amy with her.

Caterina had seen this kind of reaction many times before, when the bodies of her dead comrades were sent home to their families. Almost every time, their families acted the same way that Andrea was acting now. They refused to leave their sons' or their brothers' sides, and they fought anyone who tried to pull them away.

"Andrea—" Rick started.

Without missing a beat, Andrea pulled out her gun and aimed it at Rick, who froze and raised his hands in submission. "I know how the safety works," she stated coldly, referring back to when Caterina had told her about the safety on her gun.

"All right," Rick said as he got onto his feet and slowly backed away. "Okay. I'm sorry."

As soon as he was far enough away that she didn't see him as a threat any more, Andrea lowered her gun back into her jeans and turned back to stare down at her sister lovingly.

Caterina shook her head with a sigh. She'd tried to warn him.

But he was right. They couldn't just leave it. So Caterina would have to encourage Andrea to let her sister go, and she had an idea of how to do just that. She stepped over the fire pit and knelt down next to her pack. She opened up one of the side pockets and started rummaging through it.

"Y'all can't be serious," Daryl scoffed. "Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."

"What do you suggest?" Rick asked exasperatedly.

"Take the shot," he proposed, aiming at Amy with his hands positioned in a makeshift gun. "Clean, in the brain, from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No," Lori disputed vehemently. "For God's sake, let her be."

Caterina finally found what she was looking for. She pulled it from the side compartment from her backpack and stood up. She didn't pay the others any mind as she started over towards Andrea.

"Where're you goin'?" Daryl called after her, but she ignored him.

Caterina slowed as she grew closer to Andrea. She acted as if she were approaching a cobra. If she snuck up too fast, she would startle her just as Rick had and Andrea would strike. So she stopped once she was a few feet away.

"Andrea?" she called warily. When Andrea didn't respond, she took a few cautious steps forward. "I'm not going to try to take Amy away," she assured her before kneeling down at her side. "I just wanted to give her this." She held out her hand to Andrea and uncurled her first. Lying in her palm was a Purple Heart with a single bronze oak leaf cluster.

Andrea looked over curiously. "A purple heart?" she said, looking up at Caterina in surprise.

Caterina nodded. "Yeah. They gave it to me when I got back from Iraq."

"Why give it to Amy?"

"Well, I don't really have much use for it," she explained. "And Amy _was_ attacked by an enemy of the State. As far as I'm concerned, she deserves it."

Andrea stared at her for a moment before taking the Purple Heart. "Thank you…"

Caterina smiled kindly. "You don't need to thank me." She patted Andrea on the shoulder and stood up. As she walked away, she could see the others staring at her in silent surprise from the corner of her eye, but she continued to essentially ignore them. She had done what she needed to do. Now the rest was up to Andrea.

She walked over to another walker lying in the middle of camp. Daryl had already taken the pickax to it, so she knelt down and grabbed it by its shoulders so that she could drag it over to the pile.

"Hey, what're you guys doing?" she heard Glenn ask.

She waited until she'd heaved the walker in her hands into the pile with the others before she looked up to see what the commotion was about. Morales and Daryl were dragging one of their dead over to the pile of walkers that Caterina was standing in front of, but they'd stopped and were staring up at Glenn, who didn't look very pleased.

"This is for Geeks," Glenn said, motioning to the walker pile. "Our people go over there."

"What's the difference?" Daryl asked. "They're all infected."

"Our people go in that row over there," he repeated more forcefully, pointing over to a row of dead that had been set up near the RV. "We don't burn them!" he shouted. "We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there."

Daryl and Morales exchanged looks before they did as Glenn asked.

"You reap what you sow," Daryl snapped once the body was in place.

"You know what? Shut up, man," Morales sighed.

Daryl ignored him. Instead, he pulled off his gloves and threw them onto the ground in anger. "Y'all left my brother for dead!" he shouted. "You had this comin'!"

Caterina rolled her eyes. Things were starting to get a bit too theatrical for her taste, and there was no way that she was going to get in the middle of any it if she could help it. So she just continued her work of sorting out the bodies.

"Are you bleeding?" Jacqui asked of Jim as he came over to help her with one of the bodies. Caterina noticed the concern in her voice, so she stopped and looked behind her at where she and Jim were. She spotted the fresh blood

"I just got some on me from the bodies," Jim waved her off.

"That blood's fresh," Jacqui argued. "Were you bit?"

"No. I got scratched during the attack."

"You got bit."

"I'm fine," Jim assured her, but Jacqui didn't believe him.

"Then show me," she demanded. When Jim just stared at her pleadingly, Jacqui jumped onto her feet and backed away from him as if he were some kind of leper. "A walker bit him!" she shouted to the others. "A walker bit Jim!"

Caterina ran her fingers through her hair with a heavy sigh. This was exactly what they _didn't_ need right now. Everyone was already fearful after the attack last night. If they started to get worked up about the possibility of anyone who had been left alive getting sick, there would be no end to this growing paranoia.

Jim threw up his hands passively as everyone started moving in on him. "I'm okay," he tried to assure them. "I'm okay."

Daryl started stalking around Jim. "Show it to us," he demanded. "Show it to us!"

Jim seemed to understand that they weren't going to leave him alone now, so he snatched up the shovel on the ground next to him and held it out in front of him defensively as the other men circled around him.

T-Dog ran up behind Jim while his attention was on Daryl and grabbed his arms, making him drop the shovel. He held him in place while Daryl pulled up Jim's shirt to reveal a perfectly clear bite mark on his left rib cage. He dropped it with a disgusted grunt, and T-Dog quickly released his hold on Jim. He and Daryl moved away from Jim, who stumbled in place.

"I'm okay!" Jim chanted repeatedly, as if just saying it would make him okay.

Caterina walked over to Jim and placed her hand on his shoulder. He jumped at the contact, but relaxed once he realized that she wasn't trying to hurt him. She could feel a bit of heat through the cloth of his shirt, but that could easily be attributed to the labor he'd been doing. She wouldn't jump to conclusions until she knew for sure that the virus was getting to him.

"I'm okay," Jim repeated.

"I know," she said gently. "I just want to feel your head, okay?" She waited until Jim had nodded before she lifted the bill of his hat and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. His skin was starting to give off a lot of heat, almost to the point that it hurt to touch him. Caterina sighed heavily and lowered Jim's hat back down over his head. She gently grabbed Jim by his arm and led him to the back of the RV, where there was an over-turn milk crate on the ground. "Sit down," she insisted. "You've got a bit of a fever. It'd be best if you didn't overexert yourself."

"I'm okay, really."

"Just to be sure," she said kindly. "We wouldn't want you passing out on us, right?"

Jim nodded hesitantly and allowed her to lower him onto the grate. "Thank you," he sighed in relief.

She smiled. "No problem." She patted him on the shoulder reassuringly before joining to the others. "He's already got a fever," she informed them.

"I say we put a pickax in his head, and the dead girl's, and be done with it," Daryl suggested.

"Is that what you'd want?" Shane asked. "If it were you?"

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."

"I hate to say it," Dale said. "I never thought I would—but maybe Daryl's right."

"Jim's not a monster, Dale," Rick argued. "Or some rabid dog."

"I'm not suggesting—" he tried, but Rick cut him off.

"He's sick—a sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" he asked.

"The line's pretty clear," Daryl spat. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him help?" Rick almost pleaded. "I heard the CDC was workin' on a cure."

"I heard that too," Shane said. "Heard a lot of things before the world went to Hell."

"What if the CDC is still up and runnin'?"

"Man, that is a stretch right there."

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they?" When no one made to agree with him, Rick turned to Caterina. "Cat, back me up on this."

"He _is_ right," Caterina said. "I seriously doubt there's any government left standing but, before everything went up in flames, the military more than likely ordered a perimeter around the CDC. It's a long shot, but there still might be a cordon there, keeping the walkers out."

"It's our best shot," Rick continued. "Shelter, protection—"

"Okay, Rick, you want all those things, all right?" Shane tried to reason with him. "I do too, okay? Now, if they exist, they'd be at the army base, For Benning." He looked at Caterina. "Right?"

"It's possible," she answered. "But that's one hundred miles in the opposite direction. And besides—"

"But it's away from the hot zone," Shane cut her off. "Now, tell me it isn't a good idea."

Caterina sighed. "If Fort Benning is operation, it would be heavily armed," she relented.

"Exactly. We'd be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing," Rick reminded Shane. "They got overrun. We have all seen that. The CDC is our best choice, and Jim's only chance."

Caterina noticed Daryl looking back at Jim and instantly got a bad feeling. He had already expressed his idea on the matter of those who were to become walkers. She wouldn't put it past him to take things in his own hands. But there was no way that she was going to let him do whatever he liked. She agreed that it was dangerous to keep Jim in their group, but it still was no excuse to callously take him out before the disease had taken him.

"You go lookin' for Aspirin, do what you need to do," Daryl said, starting to move towards Jim. "Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!"

"Hey!" Rick called after him, but Daryl didn't listen.

Caterina rushed after Daryl and grabbed the head of the pickax as soon as he raised it. In that same motion, she snatched one of her hunting knives from their holsters and pressed it to Daryl's throat, directly over his main artery. She stepped closer so that her chest was barely pressing against Daryl's back, allowing her to speak in his ear. "We don't kill the living," she said low enough that only he heard her.

"That's funny, comin' from a girl holdin' a knife to my throat," Daryl muttered shakily

"I find it's easier to persuade people this way," she commented nonchalantly, deciding to ignore the tremor in his voice for the moment. She could tease him about it later. "Now, let go of the pickax," she almost purred. Daryl was hesitant, but he let Caterina take the pickax from him. She waited until the pickax was in her own hands before she removed her knife from his neck and returned it to its holster.

Daryl turned and stepped away from Caterina. "You're lucky you're a girl," he said.

"I think you mean _you're_ lucky I'm a girl," she retorted smoothly.

Daryl stared at her for a moment before he bumped past her. Caterina turned to watch him, and the corners of her lips turned up into a small smirk. She couldn't help but feel a little pleased that she'd made him react like that. She was even sure that he had been blushing when he walked away. She wasn't vain enough to think that it was actually _her_ that made him blush; it was more than likely the fact that he'd been overpowered by a girl.

Now that the crisis had been averted, Rick grabbed Jim. "Come with me."

"Where're you takin' me?" Jim asked.

"Somewhere safe."

While Rick took Jim into the RV, Caterina slung the pickax over her shoulder and walked off to finish taking care of the dead. Since she'd taken Daryl's weapon, it was up to her to make sure that all of the corpses' brains were destroyed before they continued the cleanup, to prevent any of them from rising up.

Since all of the walkers had already been taken care by Daryl, she approached the line of bodies in front of the RV. They were all of the people from their camp that had been killed (apart from Amy, of course). She said a silent prayer for each of them before she started putting the pickax through their heads.

She was just about to move on to the corpse that she was barely able to recognize as Ed when Carol approached her.

"Hey," Caterina greeted her.

Carol held out her hand for the pickax. "I'll do it," she offered. When Caterina didn't do anything but stare at her unsurely, she added, "He's my husband."

Caterina stared at Carol for a moment longer, contemplating whether or not she should actually let her do it, before she handed over the pickax. She had decided that it was best to let her take out whatever aggression that she might have on Ed's body now that she didn't have to worry about any retaliation from him. It could be therapeutic.

She stepped back and watched as Carol stabbed the pickax into Ed's head repeatedly, crying the entire time. The force behind her swings were stronger each time she lowered that axe. She didn't stop until Ed's head had been practically broken in half. Finally, she stopped and stared down at what she had done.

When it became obvious that Carol wasn't able to look away from what had once been her husband, Caterina stepped up and gently took the pickax from her hand. This snapped Carol out of whatever daze she was in, and she gave Caterina a small, watery smile before slowly walking off.

Caterina continued with her job, deciding not to think about what she'd just witnessed.

She had just driven the pickax through another corpses' head when she heard that all too familiar guttural sound. Fearing the worst, she moved around the RV towards the noise. She relaxed slightly when she saw that it was Amy that was making the noise. Andrea was holding her in her arms while at the same time preventing her from getting too close to her neck.

"I'm here now, Amy," Andrea sobbed. "I'm here. I love you."

With that, she took out her handgun and shot Amy in the head, killing her for the second time.

A silence fell over the camp as everyone stared at the two sisters. Caterina was the first to break it, when she turned away from the girls to look over at Daryl, who had been walking back from taking out a bit of his frustration on a walker.

"Daryl," she called out, gaining his attention. "Help me get everyone ready."

"You can't say please?" Daryl asked.

She gave him an unimpressed look but relented. "Please."

"Yeah, whatever…" he muttered as he approached over to the line of corpses.

Caterina rolled her eyes before helping him grab one of the bodies.

* * *

Once they had everyone from the camp wrapped up and stowed away in the bed of an blue and white, American made truck, the two of them rode up to where Shane and Rick were digging the graves. From what the others had told her, Jim had already dug some of the graves they needed because of some dream he had, so there wasn't much more that needed to be done.

Daryl and Caterina jumped out of the truck and walked around to the back to start unloading the bodies.

"I still think it's a mistake," Daryl expressed, "not burnin' these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all? Wasn't it the idea?"

"At first," Shane said.

"Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" Daryl asked. "These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are."

"There are no rules," Rick pointed out.

"Well, that's the problem," Lori jumped in as she and the others joined them on the hill. Shane and Rick were almost done, so the time was coming for everyone to pay their respects to everyone that they had lost. "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves," Lori continued. "We need time to mourn, and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do."

Caterina and Daryl exchanged a quick look before they started to get to work bringing the bodies out of the truck bed and into the graves. Rick and Shane joined them while the others just stood by and watched. It wasn't until they'd reached Amy's body that anyone else volunteered to handle the bodies. Caterina and the others stood back and watched as Andrea struggled to lower her sister into the remaining grave. It was a pitying sight. Andrea was obviously having trouble, as her vision was probably blurred by her tears. But Caterina didn't move to help her. She knew that it was something that Andrea had to do on her own if she was to have any chance of moving on.

Dale didn't seem to understand this, as he moved to help Andrea.

"I can do it," Andrea sniffled. "I can do it."

Once Amy was in the ground, Dale pulled Andrea out of the grave, and the two of them joined the others standing to the side. They all had a moment of silence as they thought about everyone that had been lost. The only person that Caterina really mourned was Amy, not because she had known her well enough to feel the loss but because she truly felt for Andrea.

One by one, the remaining members of the group started back to camp. Caterina was walking back down the hill with Morales and his family when Rick called out to her.

"Cat?"

She stopped and turned back to where Rick and his family were standing by the truck.

"Could you take Carl back to camp please?" he asked.

"Sure," Caterina said. She held her hand out to Carl, who took it after glancing at his parents. She nodded to Rick and Lori before she started leading him back down to camp. She could practically feel the sorrow rolling off of him, and she tightened her grip on Carl's hand to get his attention. "You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Carl sighed. "It's just… Amy, ya know?"

She nodded. "Yeah… Yeah, I know." She looked down at Carl. "Just think about it this way—Amy doesn't have to worry about the walkers finding her anymore, or about how she'll survive the day."

"So…it's better that she's gone?" Carl wondered.

"In a way. I'm not saying that everyone would be better off dead. We should still fight to survive, to find a way out of all this."

"You really think there's a way out?" he asked almost hopefully.

She didn't say anything as she considered whether or not she truly believed that. After a moment, she realized that she did. While she couldn't be for sure, she still believed that they wound find some way to survive all of this. Either someone would find a cure, or the walkers would just somehow die out and those who were left alive would be able to restart the world.

"I can't know for sure," Caterina answered after a moment. "But I believe so."

* * *

By the time they reached camp, Rick and Lori had caught back up with them. Carl didn't let go of Caterina's hand until they were safely out of the woods and back in camp. He smiled up at Caterina before going over to the fire pit where the others were gathered. Caterina decided to go with Rick and Lori to check in on Jim.

She followed the two to the back of the RV, where Carol was running a wet rag over Jim's sweaty forehead. It seemed that his temperature had gotten worse while they were up on the hill.

"His fever is worse," Carol said, confirming Caterina's thoughts.

"You need anything?" Lori asked.

"Uh…uh, water," Jim struggled to say. "Cold use more water."

"I'll get some," she assured him. "Carol, can you help me?"

Carol nodded and stood up. Caterina slid past Lori so that she was standing behind Rick, allowing Lori and Carol through the narrow hall. Once they were gone, Caterina claimed Carol's seat by the bed while Rick sat on the small night stand.

"You save a grave for me?" Jim attempted to joke.

"Nobody wants that," Rick replied.

"It's not about what you want," Jim said. "That, uh…that sound you hear? That's God laughing while you make plans."

"What I want, Jim—what we want, if God allows—is to get you some help."

Jim opened his mouth to say more, but he was unable to as he started coughing violently. Caterina leaned forward and grabbed a pot that had been placed by the bed. She handed it to Jim, who took it and coughed into the pot. Caterina almost winced when she saw the blood splatter in the pot, but she managed to keep her expression in check. Jim spit a bit more blood into the pot before handing it back to Caterina, who placed it on the bedside table so that he could reach it easier for the next time.

"Watch the mangroves," Jim said seriously. It was obvious that he was becoming delirious from the fever. "The roots will gouge the boat. You know that, right?" he asked, looking between Rick and Caterina. "Amy is there, swimming. You'll watch the boat, right? You said you would."

Caterina's heart dropped. She understood that his deliriousness was a sign that he was getting close to losing himself.

She had seen someone turn only once before, back when this epidemic had first started. It had been someone from her former group. He had been relatively young, so it had been hard to watch it. But she'd forced herself to, because she wanted to understand what this virus actually did. So she and one of his friends had stayed at his side through the whole process. It was slow and painful, from what she'd observed. It was saddening to think that Jim would be experiencing that now.

She and Rick exchanged looks.

"We'll watch the boat," Rick promised.

Jim nodded in satisfaction. "Okay."

Caterina patted Jim's covered leg as she and Rick both got to their feet. She gave Jim a reassuring smile before she started following Rick back up the hall towards the RV door. She could just barely see two people gathered in front of it. She didn't realize who it was until she heard a voice.

"I guess I'll just add it to the list of habits I'm breakin'. Whether I like it or not."

Rick stepped down into the doorway. "What habits?" he asked.

"Just talkin' about my need for a plan, man," Shane answered after exchanging a rather suspicious look with Lori. "So what is it? We leavin' or not? Maybe y'all just wanna stay here. We could hang some more tin cans," he offered.

"We can't stay here," Rick argued. "We both know that."

"I was just tellin' Shane that I think we should trust your gut," Lori added.

Shane gave her a look before turning his attention back on Rick. "Let's go do our sweep," Shane said.

Rick nodded, and the two of them grabbed some guns from Shane's jeep before they started off into the woods, Dale right behind them.

Caterina watched them go before she looked at Lori. "Are you okay?" she asked. It was obvious that Lori was feeling a bit stressed. About what, she couldn't be sure. But she had a feeling that it had to do with whatever she and Shane had _really_ been talking about, and what that look between them had been about.

She had an inkling of what was going on, but she sincerely hoped that she was wrong.

"Yeah," Lori said. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Caterina nodded, but she didn't look at all convinced. She looked out at the camp from where she stood in the door frame of the RV. "You know, that always seems to be people's answer whenever I ask that," she said before turning her gaze back on Lori. "And it's a lie every time."

Lori swallowed almost nervously.


	10. Chapter 9

**Author's Note**

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to update in a while. College is a real hassle, especially if you want to keep up your social life and not become some kind of hermit (which, admittedly, I've kind of become lol). Anyway, I plan to write a few chapters this weekend, in case it happens again and I'm not able to write during the week.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

Caterina sat with the remainder of the group around the fire pit. Even Andrea had curled up in one of the lawn chairs, although she refused to look at or talk to anyone. But no one could fault her for it. After all, she had to shoot her own sister in the head.

Caterina sat in a lawn chair next to Carol and Sophia, cleaning her arrows and her crossbow. There really wasn't any need, but it kept her occupied. She really didn't want to think about Amy or Jim or any of the others had had fallen victim to those walkers. She didn't want to think about how she had recognized one of the walkers from the city, and how it might have been her and Rick's fault that they'd been drawn from the city to their camp.

She looked up as Rick, Shane, and Dale approached the group, having returned from their circuit.

"I've, uh…I've been thinkin' about Rick's plan," Shane started, gaining everyone's attention.

Caterina heard footsteps coming up behind her before two hands appeared on her shoulders. She didn't need to look to know that it was Glenn. He was the only person that she couldn't see clearly.

"Now look, there are no, uh…no guarantees either way," Shane continued. "I'll be the first one to admit that." He looked across the fire at Rick. "I've known this man for a long time. I trust his instincts." He glanced around at the others. "I say the most important thing here is we need to stick together. So, those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the mornin'. Okay?"

No one said anything, but they all seemed to understand. This little oasis that they'd found was no longer safe, and they had to move before another group of walkers stumbled upon them.

* * *

The next morning, everyone gathered around the line of cars. Caterina stood with Dale and Daryl to the far side of the group, her crossbow strapped to her bag, which was hanging off one shoulder. Normally, she would two-strap it to keep from hurting her back (she might be spry, but she wasn't exactly young anymore), but she would be putting it down soon anyway, so there was no real need.

"Everybody, listen up," Shane called out as they got ready to head out. "Those of you with CBs, we're gonna be on Channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now, you got a problem—don't have a CB, can't get a signal—anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

Morales stepped forward almost hesitantly. "We're, uh…we're not going," he informed everyone, much to their surprise.

"We have family in Birmingham," his wife explained. "We wanna be with our people."

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Shane told him, trying to talk them out of leaving. He didn't want them to go off and end up getting hurt. After all, they had two kids. Morales might be tough, but his wife sure wasn't. He would be doing all of the heavy lifting if they ran into any trouble, and it would be easy for them to be overrun.

"We'll take the chance," Morales said. "I gotta do what's best for _my_ family."

"You sure?" Rick asked, thinking along the same lines as Shane.

"We talked about it. We're sure."

Rick nodded. "All right. Shane?" he asked, motioning to his duffle bag at their feet. Shane nodded his assent, and Rick knelt down to rifle through his collection of guns. Caterina's had been added to it, to make room for anything else that they might come across in time. ".357?" he posed as he pulled a Model 586 Smith & Wesson from the bag along with a box of .357 Magnum ammunition.

"Yeah," Shane nodded. He took the box from Rick, and the two of them approached Morales, each of them presenting their gifts. "Box is half full."

Morales took the gun and ammunition gratefully.

Daryl scoffed as he started to pace next to Caterina, who reached out and elbowed him in the ribs once he was within range. He placed his hand over the spot where she'd hit him, even though she hadn't hit him nearly hard enough to actually hurt him, and glared back at her. He looked away, however, when she didn't stand down.

Caterina looked up at Dale when she spotted his amused expression from the corner of her eye and winked at him, earning a silent chuckle from him.

Lori leapt down from her perch on the hood of one of the vans and walked over to Morales' family.

"Thank you all for everything," Morales' wife said tearfully.

Lori didn't say anything as she just took the woman into her arms, allowing her to cry into her shoulder.

Morales held his hand out to Shane, who shook it. "Good luck, man," Shane said.

"Appreciate it," Morales replied.

Caterina just watched awkwardly as everyone said their goodbyes to Morales' family. She wanted to say goodbye as well, but she had never been really good at them. Not to mention that she hadn't really spoken to any of them, so she felt as her goodbye wouldn't have much meaning, even if she did see them as friends.

"Channel 40 if you change your minds," Rick reminded Morales. "All right?"

"Yeah," Morales nodded.

With that, he and his family loaded into one of the Jeeps. Caterina noticed Daryl turn to watch them as they went. She had a feeling that he'd wanted to say goodbye to them as well, but that would ruin his bad-ass, "I don't care about anyone" image, and he struck Caterina was the type that liked to keep up appearances, even if who people thought he was wasn't who he was _actually_ was.

"What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane muttered to Rick, who looked at him in an exasperated way. "Come on, let's go!" he called out to the others. "Let's move out."

Rick broke away from Shane as he approached the van that his wife and son had filed into, along with Carol and Sophia. He paused once he realized that Caterina hadn't moved to join them, and he turned to look at her. "You comin' with us?" he asked.

"Actually, I was thinking that I'd ride with Daryl," Caterina said. Rick looked at her in surprise and confusion, and she shrugged. "Someone's gotta watch him."

Rick nodded, seeming to think that it was a good idea. "All right. If you change your mind, you'e welcome to join us," he assured her.

Caterina nodded and watched as Rick walked around to the driver's seat and got in. Once he was in his car, she turned to look over at Daryl. She hadn't told him of her plan to ride with him in his truck (she had found out that from Shane it was actually his brother's, as was the Triumph Trophy that had been loaded up in the bed of the truck), so she wasn't surprised at the glare that he was sending her way.

She just smiled innocently and went to join him by the truck.

* * *

There was an uncomfortable silence between them as they drove behind the others towards the end of the convoy, between T-Dog and Shane. Caterina didn't mind the silence much, but it seemed to be putting Daryl on edge. He kept fidgeting in his seat. She was tempted to reach over and still him, but she figured that it would push him over the edge if she touched him, so she kept her hands to herself and just stared out of the window, trying to ignore him.

They'd only gone a little over three miles when they had to pull over.

Half of the group gathered outside of the RV. Dale had to stop the convoy once his radiator started smoking. From how much it was smoking, Caterina guessed that it wouldn't do to just patch it up and move on. He really needed a new hose.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose," Dale told Rick as he tried to wave away the smoke with his patrol hat. "I said I needed the one from the cube van."

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asked.

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."

"I see somethin' up ahead," Shane called as he scouted the area ahead with a pair of binoculars. "Gas station if we're lucky."

Jacqui suddenly came running out of the RV, looking harried. "Y'all! Jim—it's bad," she said. "I don't think he can take anymore."

Caterina glanced around at the others before she followed Jacqui on to the RV. She noticed Daryl starting to follow them, but he paused in the doorway, seeming to decide against it. He watched the two of them as they made their way to the back where Jim laid—his eyes specifically focused on Caterina, although she didn't realize it—before he stepped back out.

"Hey, Rick, you wanna hold down the fort?" Shane suggested. "I'll drive up ahead, see what I can bring back."

"I'll come along too," T-Dog volunteered. "Back you up."

Shane nodded. "Y'all keep your eyes open now" he told the others. "Be right back." He motioned for T-Dog to follow him, and the two walked back to where Shane had parked his Jeep.

By this point, Caterina had settled into the chair next to Jim (Jacqui had elected to stand in the hall rather than get too close). He looked worse than the last time that she had spoken to him. His eyes were blood-shot, and he was covered in seat. He looked miserable. Caterina reached out and placed her hand on Jim's forehead only to pull it back. His skin was scorching. It wouldn't be long now until the fever burned him out.

Caterina looked up as Rick appeared in the hallway behind Jacqui.

"We'll be back on the road soon," he assured Jim.

"Oh no," Jim groaned. "Christ. My bones…my bones are like glass. Every little bump—God. This ride's killing me." He paused to nod out the window next to the bed. "Leave me here."

Caterina exchanged looks with Rick. She could tell that he didn't like the idea. She didn't like it much either, but she had to admit it was better than one of them having to shoot him once he was dead. Still, it wasn't too comforting thinking of him wandering the Earth as a walker once the fever burned him, the very thing that they had been fighting against for so long.

"I'm done," Jim said hoarsely. "Just leave me. I wanna be with my family."

Rick knelt down next to Caterina. "They're all dead," he reminded Jim. "I don't think you know what you're askin'. The fever—you've been delirious more times than not."

"I know. Don't you think I know?" Jim struggled to sit up a bit more, crying out in pain when he did. He paused to get comfortable before looking back up at Rick and Caterina. "I'm clear now," he assured them. "In five minutes, I may not be. Rick, Cat—I know what I'm asking. I want this. Leave me here. Now, that's on me. Okay? My decision. Not your failure."

Caterina nodding slowly. "All right." She stood and looked down at Rick, who was staring at Jim. She reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Come on," she urged him. She waited until Rick was on his feet before she walked out of the RV. "Get Lori and Carol," she told Glenn as she stepped out of the RV.

Glenn nodded and went to do as she asked, no questions asked, which Caterina appreciated.

By the time that Carol and Lori had joined everyone outside, Shane and T-Dog had returned to the convoy. They had apparently been able to find a hose, but the need to fix the RV was put on hold as everyone gathered to hear what Rick and Caterina had to say.

"Cat and I think we should leave Jim here," Rick told them. "It's what he says he wants."

"And he's lucid?" Carol wondered.

"Seems to be," Caterina said.

"Back in the camp, when I said that Daryl might be right and you shot me down, you misunderstood me," Dale spoke up. "I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer."

"We just leave him here?" Shane asked, unsure. "We take off? Man, I'm not sure I can live with that."

"You don't have to," Caterina replied. "It's Jim's decision to make, not yours."

"Cat's right," Rick agreed. "It's what he wants."

Shane sighed heavily, running his fingers through his hair. "All right," he relented after a moment. "Fine. Come on," he said, motioning for Rick to follow him as he clambered into the RV.

Rick glanced at Caterina, who nodded encouragingly, before he followed Shane.

The two came back out a moment later with Jim in between them. Everyone stepped aside to allow them access to the woods on the side of the road. They carefully lead Jim up the side of a steep hill and placed him down next to a tree, allowing him to lean back and rest against the trunk. Jim was panting from exertion, even though Rick and Shane had done most of the work. It was only a matter of time before he was gone.

Everyone (including Sophia and Carl) climbed up the hill to join them.

"Hey, another damn tree," Jim joked with a smile. It was amazing that he was still able to retain his sense of humor with what he must be going through.

"Hey, Jim," Shane said. "I mean, you know it doesn't need to be like this."

"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice."

Shane's head dropped in despair. "Okay," he muttered. "All right." He reached out and patted Jim on the knee before backing up down the hill so that anyone who wanted to could come up and say their goodbyes.

Jacqui was the first to go up. She knelt down and grabbed Jim's hand, a soft smile on her face. "Just close your eyes, sweetie," she said. "Don't fight." Jim did as she said, and Jacqui leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before quickly making her way back down the hill.

Rick was the next to step up. He pulled a Model 10 Smith & Wesson from the back of his pants and held it out to Jim for him to take. "Jim, do you want this?" he asked.

"No," Jim answered. "You'll need it"" Rick looked down in distress, so Jim reassured him. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Rick patted Jim on the shoulder and walked away.

Next was Dale, whom Caterina had guessed that Jim was the closest to in the group other than Jacqui. She had always seen the two of them together, working on the Winnebago.

"Oh, hey."

"Thanks for, uh…for fighting for us," Dale said as he knelt down in front of Jim.

"Okay."

No one else seemed to be able to find the courage to approach him now, so they all started to make their way back to their respective cars. Caterina and Daryl, however, didn't move. The two of them stayed where they for a moment before Caterina approached Jim. She paused a few feet away from him and shuffled her feet.

"I'm sorry that this happened to you," was the only thing that she could find to say.

Jim smiled kindly, seeming to understand that was hard for her. "Yeah, me too," he teased, earning a slight smile from Caterina. Then his gaze turned serious. "Thank you," he said earnestly.

Caterina didn't need to ask what he was thanking her for. Instead, she just nodded and gave him one last smile before she turned away and walked back to the truck. She heard Daryl following her a moment later, but she didn't pay him any mind. She just slid into the passenger's seat and placed a hand over her mouth as she felt tears starting to well up behind her eyes. She swallowed roughly and closed her eyes to keep the tears at bay. She was glad that she wouldn't have to shot Jim, but it upset her to just leave him like that, even if it was his decision. She might not have known him very well, but she still felt that he'd become a friend to her over the short amount of time they'd been a part of the same group, just as Morales and his family had become her friends. Friends were a rare thing nowadays, so you wanted to make as many as you could in the time that you had.

It hadn't been so upsetting that Morales and his family had left. It was their decision to make. But Jim hadn't chosen this. He hadn't asked to be bitten. And now all Caterina could think about was the possibility that they would meet Jim again, but as a walker.

She didn't bother opening her eyes as she heard the driver's side door open and close, knowing that it was Daryl (she could tell from the already familiar scent of cigarette smoke and sweat). She could feel his eyes on her for a moment before he turned away, and Caterina felt the truck rumble to life beneath her.

"There's no need to get so emotional about him," Daryl said as he threw the truck into drive. "It's what he wanted, right?"

Caterina opened her eyes and looked over at Daryl, who was looking out of the windshield with an almost determined look on his face. She stared at him in silent surprise. While he hadn't gone about it in the gentlest of ways, she understood he'd been trying to make her feel better, in his own "Daryl" way.

"Thanks," she said when Daryl started to fidget under her stare, a slight smile on her face.

Daryl threw her a quick glance before turning back to stare out of the windshield.

* * *

The convoy didn't stop again until they had reached the CDC. As soon as they'd stopped, Caterina leapt out of the truck with her crossbow in hand only to be hit by the smell of death. She paused at the horrid smell but, other than that, she didn't react. She waited until the stench was gone from her mind before she moved further up the line of vehicles to join the others, who were gazing around in horror at all of the bodies that littered the area between them and the CDC building. Apparently, the cordon had fallen, despite what had obviously been a heavy military presence.

Everyone armed themselves before they started to make their way to the building. Those who didn't have a strong stomach coughed and gagged at the odor.

"All right, everybody keep movin'," Shane urged them. "Go on. Stay quiet."

Caterina followed the others through the carnage. It was upsetting, seeing so many of her brothers-in-arms strewn across the yard as they were. But such was life, even back before the spread of what this disease was. During her tours, she had seen many scenes like this (not nearly the same level as decomposition, but the number of bodies had been either equal to or greater than this). You would think that she would have gotten used to it—had found a way to become detached—but she hadn't. It was still as troubling a sight as her first time.

"Okay, keep movin,'" Shane continued to push the others. "Stay together. Keep movin'."

Rick shushed them, worrying that some of these bodies might not be completely dead. The last thing that they needed was another attack like the one at camp.

It seemed like an impossibly long time before they reached the doors of the CDC. The shutters had been lowered, preventing either entrance or escape. Caterina hoped beyond all hopes that the building hadn't gotten overrun like the military barricade had, that there was at least still once person inside working on finding a cure for this outbreak.

Rick pounded on the shutters while Shane tried to find a way to raise it. When this didn't work, he joined Rick in hitting the shutters. Caterina flinched at the noise and turned her back on the group to stare out at the field behind them.

"There's nobody here," T-Dog sighed.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick threw back.

Caterina noticed a walker in a military uniform stumbling its way towards them.

"Walker!" Daryl cried, warning the others.

"I've got it," Caterina said. She aimed her crossbow, but she froze when she looked closer at the walker's face. Even beneath all of the decay, she recognized it. It was the face of David Jameson, one of the men from her unit. Caterina lowered her crossbow in pace with her heart as it sank. If David was there, then that meant that the rest her unit was here among this graveyard…

"What're you waitin' for? It to do a little dance?" Daryl quipped, unable to see the look of anguish on her face.

Still, his voice did snap some sense into her, and she raised her crossbow to aim at her friend. She took in a deep breath, and a calm mask fell over her face. "I'm sorry," she muttered, low enough that nobody could hear. And she fired an arrow into David's head, right in his third eye.

Satisfied that Caterina hadn't suddenly lost her nerve, Daryl turned on Rick angrily. "You lead us into a graveyard!" he shouted as he stalked towards him. This time, Caterina didn't have the mindset to stop him.

"He made a call," Shane defended Rick as he stepped between him and Daryl.

"It was the wrong damn call!"

Caterina shook herself out of her stupor and went around to Daryl, grabbing his arm. "Daryl, stop it," she said as she tugged on him. When he didn't react, she tugged harder, making him take a step back. "Stop it!" she ordered more forcefully. Daryl turned his glare down on her, and she met his gaze evenly. The two stared at each other for a moment before Daryl seemed to calm down. But Caterina kept her grip on his arm for a bit longer. She told herself that it was to make sure that he'd calmed down enough that he wouldn't attack Rick as soon as she let go but, seeing as the thought of how well-muscled Daryl was had just passed her mind, she was pretty sure that wasn't really the reason…

She pulled back her hand as if Daryl's skin had just burned her, and she took a few steps back from him. Daryl seemed to notice this sudden change of character, and he looked at her in confusion. She just turned away from him, shifting her attention back on the graveyard.

"Rick, this is a dead end," Caterina heard Shane saying behind her.

"Where are we gonna go?" Carol asked fearfully. But no one paid her any mind.

"Do you hear me?" Shane continued. "No blame."

"Shane's right," Lori agreed. "We can't be here this close to the city after dark."

Rick turned to stare up at the building, obviously torn. He'd wanted to so badly for this place to be their salvation, but it seemed that the CDC had been shut down. Now, they were all exposed, in the middle of Atlanta city, and the sun had already started to fall below the horizon.

"Fort Benning—Rick, still an option," Shane said.

"On what?" Andrea scoffed. "No food, no fuel. That's one hundred miles."

"One hundred twenty-five," Glenn corrected her. "I checked the map."

"Forget Fort Benning," Lori snapped. "We need answers tonight, _now_."

"We'll think of sumthin'," Rick assured her, still not ready to let the idea of this place go.

Shane seemed to think that it was useless to try and talk Rick out of it, so he changed tactics and started to herd everyone back towards the cars. "Come on, let's go," Shane said. "Let's go, please."

"Come on," Daryl said, motioning for Caterina to follow him.

Caterina made to do so, but she hesitated upon seeing that Rick hadn't moved.

"All right, everybody back to the cars," Shane continued. "Let's go, move." He glanced back over his shoulder at Rick and saw that Caterina wasn't moving either. "Cat, come on."

Caterina looked between the others and Rick, still not moving. She wasn't about to just leave Rick. They'd already lost one person today. At any rate, she and Rick had been through too much together for that. She felt that she was indebted to him, just as much as she was to Glenn. After all, he had been the one to offer her a ride to Atlanta. Even though he'd pulled her away from her search for her family, she'd found another group of survivors thanks to him. Although she hadn't particularly minded being on her own, it was harder than it was to be with a group. There were thousands upon thousands of walkers out there, and they tended to travel in packs. There had been times where she hadn't been sure that she would survive. Now, she didn't have to worry about that as much. She had others looking out for her. And that was because of Rick.

"The camera!" Rick suddenly shouted. "It moved!"

Caterina looked up at the camera. It did seem to have moved a few inches from its original position, but it could've just been her imagination or the gears winding down.

"You imagined it," Dale said, not believing him.

"It moved," Rick argued forcefully, stepping towards the camera. "It moved."

"Rick, it's dead, man," Shane tried to convince him. "It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just windin' down. Now, come on." He pushed on Rick's shoulder, trying to get him moving, but he resisted.

"No—"

"Man, just listen to me," he pleaded. "Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick!" he shouted as Rick pushed away from him and started pounding on the shutters again.

"Rick, there's nobody here!" Lori shouted.

"I know you're in there," Rick spoke to the camera, ignoring the others. "I _know_ you can hear me."

Shane turned and motioned for the others to leave. "Everybody get back to the cars, now!" he cried over Rick's voice, even though he didn't move from his partner's side. He'd apparently decided to stay and continue to try and convince Rick that the CDC was a lost cause, but he wanted the others to get to safety.

"Please! We're desperate! Please, help us," Rick begged the camera. "We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left."

Lori left Carl with Carol and ran out in front of her husband. "Rick, there's nobody here," she tried to tell him, but he pushed past her just as he'd done Shane.

"We have nowhere else to go."

"Keep your eyes open," Shane warned the others.

Caterina looked away from Rick and the camera to the walkers that were meandering towards them. All of their yelling had drawn some attention, which wasn't at all surprising. They kept trying to yell over each other in order to be heard, and Rick kept banging on the shudders. Considering how silent the area had been before they got there, it was no wonder that the walkers had heard them.

"If you don't let us in, you're killing us!" Rick shouted almost hysterically. "_Please!_"

Shane grabbed Rick around the shoulders and stared dragging him away. "Come on, buddy." He waved the others towards the cars. "Let's go. Let's go!"

"Please, help us!" Rick continued to yell to the camera. "You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!"

Caterina spun around as the doors suddenly clanged open. She flinched at the bright light coming from inside and covered her eyes as she could stare into it, lowering her crossbow absentmindedly.

It seemed that someone had survived after all.


	11. Chapter 10

Everyone stared into the bright light shining from inside the CDC building, seeming to be in a daze. They didn't snap out of it until the lights were shut off. As soon as they were, they moved cautiously into the building.

"Cat, Daryl, you cover the back," Shane instructed.

Caterina nodded and joined Daryl at the back of the group as the others hurried inside. She kept her crossbow aimed at the group of walkers coming towards them, but she didn't fire. She didn't want to waste any more arrows. Instead, she kept an eye out for any that stalked a bit too close to the building. If any got close, she could shoot them and still be able to retrieve her arrows.

Daryl reached out and smacked Caterina on the arm. "Come on."

She nodded and started backing through the doors, never once taking her eyes off the walkers. But she didn't let herself look too closely at any of them, especially ones dressed in military uniforms. She didn't want to risk a repeat of what happened when she saw David.

"Hello?" Rick called into the deathly quiet building. "Hello?"

Once she was inside, Caterina glanced at Daryl. "Close the doors," she instructed.

Daryl nodded and reached out in front of her to close the doors so that Caterina did''t have to look away from the walkers. She waited until the doors were fully closed and everyone was safe before she lowered her crossbow and turned to face the inside of the building with the others. She'd been in the CDC once before, but that was back when she was in elementary school. Her father had known someone who worked there and had arranged for them to get a tour of the building.

"Hello?" Shane called.

A gun cocked from the back of the foyer, and Caterina instinctively aimed towards the sound. She relaxed again when she saw a non-assuming man standing there, staring at them all hesitantly. He looked to be in his early- to mid-fifties, if not late-forties. He had cropped blonde hair and blue-grey eyes, from what Caterina could tell. He looked well-groomed, which wasn't too common with how the world was now. She guessed that the generators that the CDC kept in the basements hadn't run out of juice yet.

"Anybody infected?" the man shouted back.

"One of our grip was," Rick answered truthfully. "He didn't make it."

The man chanced a few steps forward now that he knew that none of them were infected. "Why are you here? What do you want?" he demanded. He still kept his distance from them, but he didn't seem as on edge as when they had first entered the building.

"A chance."

"That's asking an awful lot these days."

Rick nodded. "I know."

The man paused to look at each person in the group, possibly looking for any signs of danger. After a moment, he said, "You all submit to a blood test—that's the price of admission."

"We can do that," Rick assured him.

He finally lowered the M4A1 in his hands. "You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed."

Without a word, Caterina, Rick, Shane, Glenn, and Daryl ran back out of the building to grab their stuff from the cars while the others stayed inside the CDC. She followed Daryl out to his truck and grabbed her pack before she moved on to T-Dog's van and grabbed his and Andrea's stuff. Once she had them secured, she ran back across the yard of the CDC, the others right behind her. She did not bother with any of the walkers. She moved too fast to have to worry about them, and Dale and T-Dog were keeping watch at the doors with their own guns.

Caterina ran through the doors first, quickly followed by Rick, Glenn, Shane, and Daryl. As soon as they were cleared, T-Dog and Dale closed the doors. Caterina handed T-Dog and Andrea their bags, and they took them with a grateful nod.

The man was waiting by a security pad, and he swiped his card once everyone was inside. "VI, seal the main entrance," he spoke into the intercom. "Kill the power up here."

The shutters lowered once more, and the security pad armed itself.

Rick stepped up to where the man was standing. "Rick Grimes," he introduced himself.

"Dr. Edwin Jenner."

* * *

They were all crowded in a rather spacious elevator, riding down to what Caterina guessed would be the main floors. Despite that, the group gathered together at the back, almost squished together. Caterina stood at the back between Glenn and Daryl, directly behind Sophia.

If she thought about it, Caterina had been keeping pretty close to Daryl ever since they had gotten back from their trip to Atlanta to find Merle. She wasn't too sure what to think about it. She told herself that it was because they worked well together, and she wanted to keep an eye on him. After all, he was the wild card of the group.

But she had a sinking feeling that wasn't entirely the reason.

"Doctors always go around packin' heat like that?" Daryl questioned.

"Oh, there were plenty left lying around," Jenner answered. "I familiarized myself." He glanced around at the group. "But you look harmless enough." He nodded down to Carl. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you."

Carl smiled slightly and looked up at Caterina with an almost prideful look in his eyes. She winked at him, earning a somewhat larger smile.

Once the elevator stopped, they all stepped out and followed Jenner through the halls. It looked like it was the living area. She knew from her tour that the scientists at the CDC oftentimes spent nights here in order to work on whatever disease or vaccine that was needed. She guessed that Jenner had been using the facilities since the outbreak. It was a great place to stay hidden, and Caterina knew that there was plenty of supplies down there.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner returned.

"A little."

"Try not to think about it."

They followed Jenner in to the control room. Caterina remembered it from her tour. It was fairly spacious, with almost fifty computers crammed onto a circular stage and even more computers on the lower level. There was a large screen set up at the front of the room, used to display data to the workers. At any hour of the day, the room would be filled with people. But there was no one there now. Just Dr. Jenner.

"VI, bring up the lights in the big room," Jenner called into the room. On command, the circle of florescent lights above the stadium lit up, along with several stage lights. Jenner glanced back over his shoulder at the others. "Welcome to Zone Five."

"Where is everybody?" Rick asked as he and the others followed Jenner down on to the stadium. "The other doctors? The staff?"

"I'm it. It's just me here."

So Caterina had been right. The CDC _had_ been overrun. And Jenner was the only survivor.

"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori questioned. "Vi?"

"VI," Jenner called to the room. "Say hello to our guests. Tell them…welcome."

"Hello, guests," a computerized female voice greeted them. "Welcome."

"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry."

* * *

Caterina and the others were gathered in one of the lecture rooms. The only real use that she could think of for a lecture room in the CDC was to debrief scientists on whatever new disease or vaccine they would be working on. Now, Jenner was using it to take samples of their blood.

Caterina sat down in the chair across from Jenner and held her arm to him without waiting for him to ask. She watched as he tied a disposable tourniquet around her bicep.

"Make a fist for me?" Jenner instructed her kindly as he disinfected the area just below the crease of her elbow.

Caterina curled her hand into a fist, allowing her arm to flex slightly, and waited as Edwin prepared the hypodermic needle. As he was about to press the needle into her arm, she leaned her head back to stare up at the ceiling. She felt the needle press against her skin, and her hand tautened a bit more in her unease. She may have seen and done a lot during her time in the military, but needles still bothered her. It had been a problem for her ever since she was little. You would think that, after all the times that she'd had her blood taken, she would've gotten used to it, but no such luck.

She could feel Jenner's eyes on her face. She guessed that he could tell that she was uncomfortable.

Daryl was also staring at her from his place next to the wall, but Caterina didn't know this.

He was surprised that she was actually afraid of a little needle. She didn't seem like she was afraid of anything—at least, that was what he had observed over the short time they'd known each other. But he guessed that everyone had something that they were afraid of, no matter how ridiculous the fear might be.

Jenner pulled the needle out of Caterina's arm. "Okay, I'm all done."

Caterina waited until Jenner had placed a Band-Aid over the puncture wound before she allowed her head to drop back down. She stood up and turned to join the others, flexing her arm to get the blood flowing again. As she went to sit next to the seat where her backpack was, she nodded to Andrea to go up to Jenner.

"What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever," Andrea said asked Jenner stuck the needle in her arm.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here," Jenner pointed out, never looking away from his work. "Let me just at least be thorough." After a moment, he pulled the needle out of Andrea's arm and placed a Band-Aid over the puncture wound. "All done."

Andrea stood up slowly and took one step towards the seats before she had to stop, looking a little woozy. Jacqui stepped forward to help steady her.

"You okay?" Jenner asked worriedly.

"She hasn't eaten in days," Jacqui explained. "None of us have."

Jenner looked at the group thoughtfully.

* * *

Caterina stood leaning against the counter, an almost empty glass of wind in hand. After Jacqui had told Edwin how long they had been without food, he had offered to let them dine with him in the kitchen. There wasn't much of an opportunity to sit down and have a nice, relaxing dinner since the outbreak. Usually, their dinners consisted of minimal talk and glances over shoulders. This was the first time in a long time that any of them had been able to just sit around and goof off without having to worry about drawing the attention of any walkers.

"You know," Dale started as he poured Lori another glass of wine, "in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France."

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then," Lori replied, her hand placed over Carl's glass to keep Dale from pouring him any wine.

"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick pressed. "Come on."

Lori stared at Rick, trying hard not to smile. After a moment, she gave in and pulled her hand away.

Dale grabbed Carl's glass and poured him just an inch or two of wine. "Here you are, young lad," he said as he handed Carl the glass.

Everyone watched as Carl took the glass and took a sip of the wine. As soon as he'd swallowed, he made a disgusted place and put the glass down. "Ew!" he cried, earning another bout of laughter from the others.

Lori patted Carl on the back proudly. "That's my boy."

"Just stick to soda pop there, bud," Shane said.

"Not you, Glenn," Daryl spoke up as he grabbed the almost empty bottle of wine.

Glenn looked up in confusion. "What?"

"Keep drinkin', little man," he said. "I wanna see how red your face can get." Everyone laughed, and Daryl turned to nod at Caterina. "You too," he said. When Caterina just blinked, Daryl walked over to her with the wine bottle and motioned for her to hand over her glass. "Come on, give it here."

"I'm good with one glass," Caterina said. She hadn't ever really been much of a drinker. It wasn't that she could not tolerate it (she was Italian, after all). Mostly, she just didn't want the effects that it could have on her. She had been around enough drunks to know how it messed up their lives. She didn't want to risk becoming like them.

Though, nowadays, she guessed it didn't really matter.

"No, come on," Daryl argued. "Some more wine ain't gonna kill ya. Come on."

She stared at him for a moment before reluctantly giving him her glass. Daryl took it eagerly and poured a decent amount of wine before handing it back. "Thanks…" she muttered. She expected him to leave after that, so she could pour the wine down the sink when he wasn't looking. But he just stood there, staring at her. He apparently wasn't going to leave her alone until she drank it. So she drained half of the glass with him watching. "Happy?" she asked sarcastically.

"For now," he said with a grin. Obviously, the alcohol was staring to affect him.

Caterina rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. Daryl's good mood was just too infectious.

Rick looked past Dale to where Jenner was sitting by himself. He hadn't moved to join in on their dinner, and he noticed that he even looked a bit depressed. Rick picked up his fork and tapped the side of his glass, gaining everyone's attention. He stood up and nodded over to Jenner. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly," he said.

"He is more than just our host," T-Dog added.

"Hear, here!" Dale said, raising his glass in agreement.

"Here's to you, Doc," Daryl said as he raised the bottle in his hand. "Booyah!"

"Booyah!" the others joined in while Caterina just laughed at how ridiculous everyone was acting.

But the good mood was killed as soon as Shane opened his mouth.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened her, Doc?" he asked. "All the, uh…the other doctors that were supposed to be figurin' out what happened—where are they?"

"We're celebratin', Shane," Rick reminded him. "We don't need to do this now."

"Whoa, wait a second," Shane argued. "This is why we're here, right? This was your move. We were supposed to find the answers. Instead, we found him," he said, pointing over at Jenner. "Found one man. Why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just…left, went off to be with their families," Jenner explained. "And, when things got worse—when the military cordon got overrun—the rest bolted."

"Every last one?"

"No. Many couldn't face walking out the door. They…opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave," Andrea pointed out. "Why?"

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, staring at Jenner.

Glenn jumped down from his perch on the counter. "Dude, you are _such_ a buzz kill, man," he muttered to Shane as he took the empty seat at the table.

Shane just looked down at his lap.

* * *

Once everyone had eaten their fill, Jenner led them out of the kitchens and to the recreational area. Caterina could tell that it was pretty late now. They must have spent hours in the dining hall, goofing off and enjoying themselves. That is, until Shane had to open his big mouth and dampen the mood. But she could understand why he had. It was a little disappointing to realize that the CDC had pretty much shut down. They were supposed to be their front line of defense against whatever this thing was. If they were no longer working on a vaccine, then what did that mean for those who were still surviving?

"Most of the facility is powered down, including housing, so you'll have to make do here," Jenner explained as they move through the halls. "The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in the storage if you like. There's a rec room on down the hall that you kids might enjoy," he said. He turned and knelt down to Sophia and Carl's level. "Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power." The kids nodded, and Jenner straightened up to address the others. "The same applies—if you shower, go easy on the hot water."

With that, he walked off, leaving the group of survivors to their own devices.

Glenn turned to the others. "Hot water?" he repeated with a large smile on his face.

"That's what the man said," T-Dog laughed in delight.

* * *

Caterina ended up taking a short shower, long enough to get all of the dirt and twigs out of her hair and off of her skin. Not only did she want to keep to Jenner's warning to take it easy, but she didn't want to give herself too much time to think. If she took too long, her thoughts would inevitably go back to David and the others from her unit. She was already kept up most nights with thoughts of her family. She didn't need to let her friends get added to the list.

When she stepped out of the shower several minutes later, she wrapped herself in one of the towels that had been provided by the CDC and walked out into the room where she was going to sleep. She stopped in the doorway, however, when she saw Daryl sprawled out on the couch. She guessed that he had just stumbled into the closest room and collapsed, which wasn't all that surprising. He had drunken a lot back in the dining hall.

Caterina crossed her arms and stared at him for a moment to see if he would notice her on his own. When he didn't, she cleared her throat. Daryl almost rolled off the couch when he jumped at the sudden noise.

"Jesus, woman! What the hell are you doin' here?" Daryl demanded. He glanced down at the towel wrapped around her torso, and Caterina had to fight to keep the amused smiled off her lips when his face turned red. "And where the hell are you clothes?"

"Did you not hear the shower running?" she asked.

Instead of answer, Daryl's eyes started to trail down her body. Caterina was about to tease him for it when she noticed his gaze stop, and his eyes widened slightly in shock. Curious, she followed his line of sight and almost sighed when she noticed that he was staring at her right leg.

Back during her time in Iraq, Caterina had been trying to help one of her comrades out of a hot zone when a land mine went off. It was far enough away that it didn't kill them, but it had resulted in the burn scars that now extended from the top of her thigh, down to her ankle, and wrapped all the way around her leg. It took over a month for it to heal, and even longer for her to be able to walk on it again. There were times when the doctors had believed she would never be able to walk again, but she'd always been the stubborn type.

"Guess not…" Daryl finally muttered, tearing his eyes away from her leg. He started to get up off of the couch. "I'll just, um…go…"

"No, it's fine," Caterina waved him off as he walked over to her pack. "You can stay in here if you want."

She knelt down next to her pack and stared rummaging through it for a change of clothes. She could feel Daryl's gaze on her back, but she didn't mind. Normally, having some guy staring at you when you had on so little coverage would be uncomfortable to a girl, but she had been in similar situations in the military. She had been the only female in her infantry group, and she'd had to change in front of her comrades multiple times.

"…You sure?" Daryl asked uncertainly.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm sure. I'm used to sharing sleeping quarters with men."

Once she had her change of clothes, Caterina stood up and started back to the bathroom. While she was comfortable enough being in a towel in front of Daryl, she was _not_ going to let him see her naked. And she had a feeling that he wouldn't be too comfortable with it either, considering how much he'd blushed at seeing her in only a towel.

"Hey," Daryl called after her.

Caterina stopped in the doorway of the bathroom to look back at him.

"…Thanks," he muttered after a moment of silence, his voice so low that she almost didn't hear it.

But she had, and she smiled at the show of appreciation. "Don't mention it."

And she stepped in to the bathroom, closing the door behind and leaving Daryl to stare at the door. Caterina didn't bother to lock it. She knew that he wouldn't try and peek in. Daryl might be a bit callous, but he seemed to be the type who respected women—at least from what she had observed.

After she had changed into a black tank top and a pair of blue jeans, Caterina walked back out into the main room to find Daryl fast asleep on the couch, snoring lightly. She chuckled and crept back over to her bag. She placed her neatly folded dirty clothes on the ground next to her bag so that she could rummage through it until she found a thin blanket that she'd taken from her home. She walked over to Daryl and carefully placed it over him. He shifted once he was covered and Caterina quickly withdrew her hand, expecting him to wake up. She gave a low sigh of relief when he didn't.

She knelt down next to the couch and stared at Daryl. He looked so much different now from when he did when he was awake. He looked more peaceful, more at ease. If she were honest with herself, Caterina would say that he looked handsome like this. Of course, she found him handsome anyway, but he was even more so without that constant scowl on his face.

Caterina shot onto her feet and stepped away from the couch. Where the hell had that come from?

She shook her head, mentally berating herself for letting her mind go off like that. The world didn't allow for any sort of romance anymore. You never knew who was going to die or when. It was one thing to let yourself create friendships with how things were, but another thing entirely to develop romantic attachments. Not that any romance would ever develop between her and Daryl. They were just too different. At any rate, Caterina wasn't any good at relationships. She had been in one once before, back when she was in college, but it ended after five months because her boyfriend felt that she wasn't committed to him because she never initiated any sort of contact. He was always the one to do it.

"Stop it, Cat," she scolded herself.

She turned away from Daryl and snuck out of the room, deciding that she would wander a little bit. She needed to clear her head. Plus, she wasn't tired enough to sleep just yet. If she lied down now, there was no telling where her mind would go.

So Caterina strolled through the halls, trying to think of something to do to occupy her time.

"Please! No!"

She froze at the sound of a familiar voice screaming. It was coming from the rec room.

"Stop, Lori," a voice that Caterina recognized as Shane said. "It's all right. Just—"

Caterina ran forward, a sinking feeling in her stomach that whatever was going on inside the rec room wasn't consensual. She ripped open the door and watched as Shane jumped away from Lori, clutching at his jaw. She could just see what looked like scratch marks there, underneath his hand.

There was a long silence as Caterina looked between him and Lori, who was staring at Shane with a horrified expression on her face. The shirt that Lori was wearing as a nightgown was pushed up around her waist, leaving her almost exposed.

Caterina turned an accusatory eye on Shane. "What the _hell_ is going on in here?" she snapped.

"Nothin' that concerns you," Shane retorted vehemently.

"No, you're right, it doesn't." She stepped closer until she was face-to-face with him. "So I suggest you get out of here before I _make_ it my business," she warned.

The two stared at each other, Shane glaring while Caterina just looked back at him calmly.

After a moment, Shane stepped down. He knew what Caterina was capable of, and he wasn't about to press his luck like that. He threw one last glance at Lori and shouldered past Caterina, stalking out of the room, punching the wall on his way.

Caterina waited until the door had closed behind him before she turned to Lori. She could clearly see the tears forming in the woman's eyes, so she moved forward to pull her into a comforting hug. Lori was quick to latch on to her, crying into her shoulder. "It's okay," Caterina shushed her. "It's all right." She ran her fingers through Lori's hair soothingly, like she'd seen her father do to her mother whenever she was upset. They stayed like that until Lori finally stopped sobbing. Caterina pulled away then. "Are you okay?" she asked, watching as Lori brushed away the tear streaks on her face with a shaky hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lori assured her, although it was obviously a lie. "Thank you."

"No problem."

Lori made an attempt at a weak smile as she stepped past Caterina toward the door. Before she was able to step outside, however, Caterina called after her.

"I'm not here to judge you."

Lori stopped to look back at her. "Excuse me?"

"I said, I'm not here to judge you." She took a small step towards Lori. "So if there's anything you want to talk to me about, _anything_, I'm all ears."

Lori stared at her pensively for a moment and nodded. "Thank you, Cat," she said wholeheartedly.

Caterina nodded and watched as Lori left to try and get some sleep for the night.

* * *

Caterina ended up staying in the rec room for a few hours. The CDC had quite the collection of books, so she had found one that looked interesting and had curled up in one of the armchairs to read. But it did little to take her mind off what had just happened. She'd been thinking for a while that there was something going on between Shane and Lori, at least before she and Rick had joined the group. From what she'd just seen, she guessed that Lori had put an end to it as soon as she found out that Rick was alive. Shane obviously wasn't taking it very well.

She had thought to herself before that Shane seemed a bit unstable. She'd seen the wayward looks he sent towards Rick and his family. One of the reasons why she hadn't said anything was because, for the moment, it didn't really seem that dangerous.

Obviously, she'd been wrong.

Caterina closed the book in her lap and ran a weary hand over her face. Everything was starting to become a bit much. Dealing with walkers was one thing, but add on all the drama and the misery and Caterina wasn't sure how much more she could handle. Even warriors had their limits.

She sat there for a moment, staring at the wall across from her. Finally, she grabbed the book from her lap and stood up, returning it to its place on the bookshelf. She turned out the light as she went to return to the room that she was sharing with Daryl. After everything that day, she was even more exhausted now than she could remember being in the last few months.

She crept into the room as quickly as she could, since the hall lights were still turned on. She stayed by the door for a moment to see if Daryl would wake up before she crept over to the corner where there was a single blanket and a pillow stacked there. She grabbed them both and strewn them out across the floor near the couch.

As soon as she had laid down and closed her eyes, she was asleep.


	12. Chapter 11

Caterina awoke to the sound of the shower running. Instead of getting up like she knew that she should, she just turned over and buried her face in the sofa cushions. It had been too long since the last time that she got to sleep without worrying about getting attacked in the middle of the night. It had been the best night of sleep that she'd gotten in a while, and she didn't want to get up just yet.

She stayed on the couch for a few seconds before her eyes snapped open and she pushed herself up onto her knees. She braced herself on the back of the couch as she stared at the cushions beneath her in a sleepy haze. She was sure that she had fallen asleep on the floor last night…

She blinked slowly as she remembered the sound that had woken her up, and she looked over her shoulder at the bathroom, where she was sure that Daryl was. He must've woken up some time before her and put her on the couch. It was the only logical explanation for why she wasn't still lying on the floor.

Caterina could feel her face heating up at the thought of Daryl picking her up while she was asleep. She quickly shook the image out of her mind and climbed off the couch so that she could make her way to the door. It would probably be less awkward for both of them if she wasn't there when he got out of the shower, so she decided that she would go down to the dining hall instead. That way, when they saw each other, there would at least be a reason for them to ignore one another.

When Caterina reached the dining hall, she found that a majority of the group was already up.

"Good morning," Dale greeted cheerfully as soon as Caterina passed through the doorway.

She sent him a tired smile. "Morning." She looked over to where Glenn was sitting next to Dale. He was hunched over his plate, looking a bit worse for wear. She nodded to him. "Is he okay?"

Dale glanced at Glenn and chuckled. "He's fine. Just drank a little too much."

She laughed softly. "I guess Daryl's a little too good at talking people into things." As she passed by the table to get to the coffee machine, she glanced over at Lori where she was sitting next to her son. "How did you sleep?" she asked coolly.

Lori looked up at Caterina and gave a slightly forced smile. "Fine," she assured. "Thank you."

Caterina nodded, but she didn't quite believe it. There was no way that Lori was as fine as she said, not after what happened last night. Still, until Lori decided to take her up on her offer to talk, it was not any of her business. So she left it at that and turned to grab one of the cups that sat next to the coffee machine. Someone had already brewed the coffee, so she just grabbed the pot and filled her cup. She mixed in half a cup of cream and three spoonfuls of sugar in the hopes of lessening the naturally bitter taste. She hadn't ever been much of a coffee person, but she felt like she needed a bit of a pick-me-up, especially after everything that had happened yesterday.

Once she had gotten the coffee to her liking, she turned only to jump back when she almost ran into Jacqui. "Oh!" she breathed, placing a hand over her frantic heart. "Jesus…"

"Sorry," Jacqui laughed, along with the others. "I just wanted to give you this." She held out a plate of bacon.

Caterina took the plate. "Thanks," she muttered. She looked up at Carl, who was laughing silently from his place at the table. She stuck her tongue out at him, earning another bout of laughter from the kid. Lori looked up at her with an almost grateful look on her face, and Caterina winked at her.

As Caterina moved over to the counter space that she had eaten at last night, Rick came stumbling into the dining hall. He looked almost as bad as Glenn, though he looked more tired than he did ill.

"Morning," he greeted everyone groggily.

"Hey," Caterina replied with a slight nod.

"Are you hungover?" Carl asked curiously as Rick took a seat next to Lori. "Mom said you'd be."

Rick smiled. "Mom is right."

"Mom has that annoying habit," Lori joked.

T-Dog walked out from behind the counters, carrying a skillet. "Eggs," he announced to the room. "Powdered, but I do 'em _good_. Bet you can't tell." He leaned over next to Glenn and pilled some of the eggs onto his and Rick's plates. "Protein helps the hangover."

Glenn just groaned pitifully.

Rick held up a bottle of aspirin that someone had placed on the table. "Where did all of this come from?" he asked as he struggled to open the bottle. When he wasn't able to, he held it out to Lori. "Can you help me please?"

Lori took the bottle. "Jenner," she said in response to Rick's first question. "He thought we could use it." She looked up across the table at Glenn with an amused smile. "Some of us at least."

"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again," the young Asian whined.

T-Dog walked over to where Caterina was leaning against the counter. "You want some?" he asked.

"Sure." She reached behind her to grab the plate that Jacqui had given her and held it out, allowing T-Dog to shovel a spoonful of powdered, scrambled eggs onto it along with the untouched slices of bacon. "Thanks," she said once he'd finished.

"No problem."

Caterina placed the plate back on the counter and looked up as Shane came into the room. Her mind instantly went back to the rec room incident, and she could practically feel the bitterness bubbling up in her stomach. She understood that Shane must have been smashed last night when it happened, but it didn't lessen the anger.

"Hey," Shane called to the room as he walked over to the coffee machine. He glanced at Caterina as he passed her, but looked away as soon as their eyes met. Caterina couldn't help but feel a bit of satisfaction at that.

"Hey," Rick replied. "Feel as bad as I do?"

Shane scoffed. "Worse."

T-Dog looked up at Shane as he turned back to the table. "The hell happened to you?" he asked as his eyes caught the scratch marks on Shane's neck. When Shane didn't say anything, he clarified, "Your neck."

"Yeah, what happened to your neck?" Caterina asked with an underlying tone of mockery. She had to raise her cup to her lips to hide the smirk on her face when he just stared up at her. She raised an eyebrow for the others to see, silently encouraging him to answer.

Shane shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I, uh…must've done it in my sleep," he answered lamely.

"Never seen you do that before," Rick said.

"Me neither," he muttered. He looked up across the table at Lori. "Not like me at all."

Lori returned Shane's gaze before turning back to her plate indignantly.

Caterina settled back further on the counter and took another sip of her coffee, still not taking her eyes off Shane. She knew he could feel her gaze, because his shoulders were tensed up. The corners of her lips turned up into a smug smirk. She was well aware that she was being a bit cynical about this, but she felt that she was justified. After all, drunk or not, Shane had tried to essentially rape Lori last night. It was obvious that his obsession with her was borderline crazy, and she was worried what he would try to do next.

She would have to keep an eye on him from now on…

"Morning," Dr. Jenner called as he entered the dining hall.

While everyone else was greeting him, Caterina saw Andrea and Dale exchange looks. Andrea sat up in her chair expectantly, and Dale gave her a slight nod before turning his gaze on Jenner. "Doc, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing…" Dale started.

"But you will anyway," Jenner muttered.

"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea said frankly.

There was an uncomfortable silence as Jenner turned away from the coffee machine to look around at the group. He stared at them all contemplatively for a moment before nodding. "Follow me," he said.

With that, he started to walk back out of the dining hall. Everyone glanced around at each other as they stood up to follow him.

Caterina noticed Daryl come in just as everyone was standing up. She pushed off the counter and grabbed her plate of breakfast, which she hadn't touched. Just as Daryl was about to pass, she held the plate out in front of him, forcing him to a stop. Daryl stared at the plate dumbly before following Caterina's arm up to her face. Caterina met his questioning gaze straight-on, but she didn't say anything (mostly because she was too embarrassed). She was only doing this as thanks for moving her to the couch. At least, that was what she told herself.

She thrust the plate into Daryl's hand before brushing past him to follow the others.

* * *

Jenner led everyone back into the control room, to the front row of computers. He placed his cup of coffee on the desk space around one of the computers and started typing away at one of the keyboards. "Give me a playback of TS-19," he said, assumingly talking to VI.

"Playback of TS-19," VI parroted.

While VI got everything prepared on the large screen, Jenner turned to everyone as they gathered around. Caterina and Daryl were at the back of the group, as they were the last to leave the dining hall. Once everyone had settled in, Caterina went to stand by the next line of computers, away from the others. She glanced over as Daryl went to stand next to her. They locked eyes as he came up at her side, and she looked away quickly before he could see how uncomfortable she was becoming around him.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this," Jenner explained. "Very few."

Everyone watched as the video of an internal imaging scan played on the screen. It went through the frames fairly quickly, showing them the transition as the scanning highlighted the brain and the brain stem of TS-19.

"Is that a brain?" Carol asked.

"An extraordinary one," Jenner replied. "Not that it matters in the end." He turned back to look up at the screen. "Take us in for EIV."

"Enhanced internal view," VI acknowledged.

The video on the screen changed perspective until it showed the subject lying down, allowing them a sideways view of their brain. It then zoomed into brain until all they could see were the electrical impulses in the brain.

"What are those lights?" Shane wondered.

"It's a person's life," Jenner answered. "Experiences, memories… It's everything." He nodded up to the screen. "Somewhere, in all that organic wiring, all the ripples of light, is you—the thing that makes you unique, and human."

"You don't make sense?" Daryl asked. "Ever?"

Caterina smiled slightly at the confusion in his voice. "They're synapses," she explained. "Electric impulses in the brain that carry messages throughout our bodies. They pretty much determine who and what you are."

Jenner nodded. "That's right. These synapses determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death?" Rick echoed. "That's what this is? A vigil?"

"Yes… Or rather the playback of the vigil."

"This person died?" Andrea asked. "Who?"

"Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected…and volunteered to have us record the process." He turned his attention back on the screen. "VI, scan forward to the first event."

"Scanning to first event," VI granted.

Caterina watched, almost enthralled, as the video fast-forwarded to what Jenner had called the first event. She frowned slightly as the video started to play again and she saw that the brain had started to go dark. The lights were dimming, and a darkness was creeping in from the base of the brain.

"What is that?" Glenn asked.

"It invades the brain like meningitis," Jenner explained, not quite answering Glenn's question. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs…" He paused as TS-19 shifted erratically before becoming still, and their brain went completely dark. "Then death." He looked down. "Everything you ever were or ever will be…gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia wondered.

"Yes," Carol replied honestly.

Caterina looked over at Andrea. She appeared to be the most distressed, which was understandable. She had just lost her sister to this disease, whatever it was. And now, to have watched what exactly had happened to Amy when she died, and to have it explained to her…it was no wonder that she was so upset.

Jenner watched at Andrea with a curious understanding.

"She lost somebody two days ago," Lori said. "Her sister."

He looked back at Andrea and took a few steps forward. "I lost somebody too," he said soothingly. "I know how devastating it is." He gave a sad smile before turning back to the screen. "Scan to the second event."

"Scanning to second event," VI reiterated.

"The resurrection times vary wildly," he said as the video scanned forward. "We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute…seven seconds."

Everyone watched the screen in anticipation. For a moment, everything was still. Then a few sparks of red light started to appear at the base of brain stem. Caterina stepped forward to place her hands on the desk in front of her and leaned on them as she watched fascinatedly as the red lights grew in number.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori said in surprise.

"No, just the brain stem," Jenner said. "Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked.

Jenner waved his hand to the screen invitingly. "You tell me."

Rick gazed up at the screen for a moment and shook his head. "It's nothin' like before. Most of that brain is dark."

He nodded. "Dark, lifeless, dead… The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn't comeback; the _you_ part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

What appeared to be the barrel of a gun appeared on the screen, and a line of light shot through the subject's brain, destroying the brain stem as well as a small portion of the brain.

"God!" Carol cried. "What was that?"

"A gunshot," Caterina replied.

"He shot his patient in the head," Andrea breathed. "Didn't you?"

Jenner didn't say anything. Instead, he turned away from the screen and said, "VI, power down the main screen and the work stations."

"Powering down main screen and workstations," VI said as the computers and screen shut off.

Andrea turned to Dr. Jenner, who had moved so that he was standing in the center of the stadium. "You have no idea what it is, do you?" she almost scoffed.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal…"

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui added.

Jenner nodded. "There is that."

"Somebody must know something," Andrea tried. "Somebody, somewhere."

"There are others, right?" Carol asked hopefully. "Other facilities?"

"There may be some," Dr. Jenner answered. "People like me."

"But you don't know?" Rick asked. "How can you not know?"

"Everything went down. Communication, directives—all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So i''s not just here," Andrea said. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" Jenner chose again not to say anything, and Andrea breathed out an almost despondent sigh. "Jesus…"

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk, again," Daryl muttered as he ran his hands over his face.

Dale stepped forward, staring at the wall behind Caterina and Daryl. "Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you, and I hate to ask one more question, but…" He walked forward until he was standing across from Daryl and motioned to the wall, where there was a large timer counting down from one hour. "That clock—it's counting down," he pointed out. "What happens at zero?"

Caterina looked at Jenner, curious about this as well.

Dr. Jenner seemed to hesitate. "The…basement generators—they run out of fuel," he said quickly.

"And then?" Rick asked.

Jenner once again refused to answer, and they watched as he just walked out of the stadium.

Rick turned to speak to the room. "VI, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur," VI answered.

Caterina exchanged worried looks with Daryl. She knew what that meant, but she doubted that the others did. This was the CDC. They kept a lot of nasty stuff in there, and to let any of it out would mean the death of the entire human population—or at least what was left of it. So when VI said "facility-wide decontamination," she meant an explosion, and a big one. She meant an explosion powerful enough to incinerate everything. And that meant them too if they stayed.

* * *

Caterina followed Rick downstairs to the basement where the generators were kept. She and a few of the other men had decided to check to see if what time they truly had until what VI said came to pass. They needed to know how long they had to get everyone out.

"Decontamination—what does that mean?" Glenn wondered.

"I don't think you wanna know," Caterina muttered, softly enough for the others didn't hear her.

"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up," Shane said. "The way he just wandered off like that."

"What's wrong with him?" T-Dog asked. "Seriously, man, is he nuts? Medicated? What?"

Rick stopped to look at a map on the wall at the bottom of the staircase. "In there," he said, nodding to a door at the end of the stairwell.

Everyone pulled out their flashlights as they passed into a small, dark area. Rick turned to another door and opened it, revealing that it was the entrance to the room that housed the generators. Rick stepped through and flipped the light switch on the wall next to the door. The others followed him into the basement, turning off their flashlights.

Rick motioned to the right. "Check that way," he instructed Glenn. "Shane. Cat," he said, nodding for them to follow him as he went forward.

Caterina followed the two men further into the basement. They separated from one another as they went to check the fuel drums scattered throughout the area. Caterina paused as she heard one of the generators still running. She walked towards the sound and found another fuel drum hidden around a corner. She glanced at the fuel dial on the wall and saw that it was just about on E. She lifted the drum slightly, but she didn't hear any sloshing.

She looked over her shoulder as Rick and Shane came up behind her. "It's empty," she informed them.

Rick sighed and ran an agitated hand through his hair. At the same moment, the generator clicked and the lights in the basement shut off. "Emergency lighting on," VI's computerized voice echoed as a dimmer light came on to filter out the darkness.

"What the hell is this?" Shane asked.

"Hey!" Glenn called as he came around the corner to join them. "You guys kill the lights?"

"Nah, it just went out."

"Anything?" Rick inquired.

"Yeah," T-Dog replied, "a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count."

Shane moved up beside Caterina to shine his flashlight on the fuel dial. He sighed when he saw that it was almost on empty. He looked up at Caterina and Rick. "It can't be down to just that one," he said.

Caterina turned to Rick. "We need to talk to Dr. Jenner," she said.

Rick nodded in agreement.

* * *

Caterina and the others followed Rick back up to the main floor. She could hear footsteps up above them on the landing just above the entrance to the foyer and guessed that everyone had come out to inquire about what was going on. If the lights had shut off down in the basement, surely they had shut off everywhere else as well.

"What do you mean it's shuttin''itself down?" she heard Daryl ask. "How can a buildin' do anything?"

Lori heard footsteps underneath them, and she hurried over to the railing. "Rick?" she called down as her husband and the others came into view.

Rick motioned for Lori to stay quiet for now as everyone followed Dr. Jenner to the bottom of the stairs. Rick quickly fell into step with the doctor, with Caterina and Daryl close behind. "Jenner, what's happenin'?" he demanded.

"The system is dropping all nonessential uses of power," Jenner answered. "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That starts as we approach the half-hour mark." They passed through the entrance to the control room, and Jenner nodded to the timer, which was now counting down from forty minutes. "Right on schedule."

Everyone moved to follow Jenner up onto the stadium, but he paused at the stairs and took a long swig of the whiskey in his hand. He stayed there for a moment, obviously anxious, and handed the bottle to Daryl, who took it from him irritably.

"It was the French," Dr. Jenner told Andrea.

"What?" the blonde asked.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs still the end. They thought that they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jacqui asked.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice." Jenner stepped up onto the stadium and turned back to the others. "The world runs on fossil fuel," he said. "I mean, how stupid is that?"

"Let me tell you sumthin'—" Shane started as he hurried up onto the stadium after Jenner.

Rick followed and grabbed Shane's arm before he could get any closer to Jenner. "To hell with it, Shane! I don't even care." He turned to his wife. "Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're gettin' out of here. _Now!"_

"Oh, okay," Jacqui muttered uneasily.

Caterina didn't bother to move, somehow knowing that it would do no good.

Just as the others were about to pass back into the foyer, sirens started blaring above them, signaling the approach of the decontamination process. Caterina's heart jumped into her throat as she realized that they might possibly die there. She wasn't really worried for herself. After all, she had learned a long time ago not to fear death. No, she was afraid for the others.

"What's that?" Carl asked his mother frightfully.

"Thirty minutes to decontamination," VI announced as the timer popped up on the main screen.

"Doc, what's goin' on here?" T-Dog called, but he got no reply.

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick!" Shane shouted over the sirens. "Get your stuff and let's go! Go!"

Everyone hurried to do as Shane said, once again moving towards the doors that lead out of the control room. Caterina was the only one who didn't move. She had noticed that Jenner had moved down the computers directly beneath the main screen and was typing something into what looked like a keypad. Although she couldn't see exactly what he was doing, she had a sinking feeling that it wasn't anything good.

Daryl paused after taking one step after the others and turned to see that Caterina still hadn't moved. "Come on!" he called out to her.

Caterina looked over at him and met his harried gaze, but she still didn't move. He was about to go grab her and lead her out of the room when the metal doors leading out of the control room slide shut, cutting off their only exit.

"No," Glenn breathed. "Did you just lock us in?" He looked up at where Rick was with a terrified look in his eyes. "He just locked us in!"

The group all gathered back around the stadium and started to climb up onto it. Daryl was the first to go up, and Caterina could tell from the enraged look in his eye that he meant to start trouble. So she hurried up after him, sure to keep close on his heels.

"You son of a bitch!" Daryl shouted as he neared where Dr. Jenner had taken a seat at one of the computers. He held up his whiskey bottle as if to throw it at the man, and both Caterina and Shane hurried forward to hold him back, Shane grabbing his arm to keep him from being able to swing it forward. "You locked us in here!" he continued as he struggled against the hold on him.

T-Dog quickly stepped between Daryl and Dr. Jenner. "No, stop! Don't!"

Caterina helped Shane pull the angered hunter away from Jenner. "Daryl, stop it!" she yelled in an attempt to be heard by him, but he seemed to be focused solely on his desire to bash Jenner's head in with the whiskey bottle.

"You lyin'—!" Daryl growled.

She ducked under Daryl's arm so that she was standing in front of him and placed her hands on his chest. She shoved just hard enough to make him take a step back. "Daryl, calm down!" she shouted. "Daryl!"

Daryl turned his gaze away from Jenner and down to Caterina. His nostrils continued to flare in his anger, and he was still struggling against Shane's hold, but he seemed to calm down just a bit when he met Caterina's gaze.

"Just calm down," she urged him more calmly.

The two continued to stare at one another as Daryl's anger slowly subsided. He was still breathing heavily, but he'd stopped struggling and had lowered the bottle of whiskey. T-Dog took it from his hand and quickly moved back out of range, in case Daryl decided to snatch it back. Shane glanced between him and Caterina before releasing his hold on him. Then it was just Caterina, who still had her hands on his chest.

Caterina realized this at the same time that Daryl did, as they both glanced down at her hands. She quickly dropped her hands back down to her sides and stepped away from him. She could feel her face heating up now, as her mind had decided to remind her once again how well-muscled Daryl was, so she kept her face turned away from everyone—especially Daryl. She did _not_ want anyone to see her blushing right now.

Once everything seemed to have calmed down, Rick hurried over to the doctor. "Jenner, open that door now," he demanded forcibly.

"There's no point," Jenner argued. "Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn things," Daryl snapped.

"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once the front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." He looked around at everyone as they exchanged fearful looks. "It's better this way," he tried to convince them.

"What is?" Rick asked. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

Jenner didn't say anything. Instead, he turned back to continue working on his computer. Rick and Shane exchanged looks, and Shane stepped forward to kick Jenner's chair.

"What happens in twenty-eight minutes?" Rick repeated loudly.

Jenner jumped to his feet as he snapped. "Do you know what this place is?" he yelled. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" He paused and sat back down in his chair. "In the event of some catastrophic power failure," he continued much more calmly, "in a terroristic attack, for example—HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

Caterina closed her eyes in dismay.

"HITs?" Rick parroted.

"VI, explain," Jenner ordered.

"HITs," VI said. "High impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other know explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between five thousand degrees and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired."

As VI explained, Rick went to try to console his family while Carol clung to her daughter, sobbing.

"It lights the air on fire," Jenner mumbled. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief…regret. Everything."

Caterina collapsed into one of the rolling chairs, her face in her hands. It was true they wouldn't feel it when the HITs were deployed, but it didn't make it any less terrifying for those who weren't ready to die, or for those who didn't want their loved ones to die. And a majority of the group was made up of families and close friends.

She listened as the men bustled around, trying to find a way out. She knew better than to join them. The CDC had one of the greatest security systems in the world. There was no way that they would be able to get out without someone opening the doors, and Jenner didn't seem willing to do that.

The sound of glass breaking resounded through the room.

"Open the damn door!" Daryl screamed at Jenner.

Someone came running across the stadium towards the door that Daryl had apparently thrown his whiskey bottle at. "Out of my way!" she heard Shane yell as he ran up the ramp to the door. There was the sound of metal scraping against metal, along with Shane's grunts as he swung whatever it was that he was using.

Daryl's grunts soon joined his.

"You should've left well enough alone," Jenner muttered. "It would've been so much easier."

"Easier for who?" Lori snapped.

"All of you. You know what's out there—a short, brutal life, and an agonizing death. Your sister—what was her name?"

"Amy," Andrea replied softly.

"Amy," Dr. Jenner repeated. "You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really want you want for your wife and son?"

"I don't want _this_," Rick replied emphatically.

Shane and Daryl finally gave up on the door, and the two returned to the stadium.

"Can't make a dent," Shane muttered, out of breath.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner said.

"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl yelled.

Rick started to yell, and Caterina finally looked up from her hands to see that Daryl was going after Edwin with an axe. Admittedly, she was kind of surprised. She knew that Daryl was pissed at the situation, but enough to kill a man over it?

It took Dale, T-Dog, and Rick to Daryl back enough for him to give up on trying to kill Jenner. He lowered the axe and backed away from the others, but he never took his eyes off of Jenner.

Jenner stood up. "You _do_ want this," he said to Rick. "Last night, you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

Caterina looked at Rick. If she were honest, she wasn't very surprised that he would say that. She had thought the same during the first month or so, when all she'd been able to see was the carnage. But then she made friends and met other survivors, and started to think that there was hope—hope that, somehow, they would find a way out of this, that they would somehow make it through.

"You really said that?" Shane asked, obviously disappointed. "After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick said.

"There is no hope," Jenner tried again. "There never was."

"There's always hope," Rick argued. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody, somewhere."

"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" Andrea said.

"Listen to your friend," Jenner said, motioning to Andrea. "She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

"This isn't right," Carol said tearfully. "You can't just keep us here."

"One tiny moment, a millisecond," he tried to assure her. "No pain."

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate, to hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"

Caterina looked up at the sound of a gun cocking. She saw Shane standing near Dale, holding one of Rick's shotguns—a Mossberg 590.

Rick hurried forward to intercept him. "Shane!"

"Shane, no!" Dale added into the mix.

"Out of my way, Rick!" Shane snapped as he pushed past Rick. "Stay out of my way!"

Caterina shot to her feet and made to step towards Shane, but she stopped when Rick motioned for her to leave it to him. She nodded and stood off to the side, but her whole body remained tensed in preparation for a fight. She already knew that Shane was unstable. She wasn't about to let her guard down when his instability was coming into light.

"Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off," Shane ordered calmly, the barrel of the shotgun pressed to Dr. Jenner's jaw. "Do you hear me?"

"Brother?" Rick started in an attempt to soothe him. "Brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here."

"Shane, you listen to him," Lori tried to help, but Caterina had a feeling that the sound of her voice just made Shane more determined to kill Jenner.

"It's too late," Shane said almost tearfully.

"He dies, we all—we all die!" Rick said as Shane started to yell in frustration. "Shane!"

Caterina ducked down as Shane turned the gun in her direction, causing him to miss her and shoot the computer that she'd been sitting in front of.

"Shane!" Rick cried, his tone a mixture of fear and surprise.

Shane continued to fire at the computers, still yelling. Caterina shifted so that she was sitting down, freeing her legs, and she kicked Shane's knees. His legs gave out with the kick, and he fell to his knees. Caterina leapt onto her feet and wrenched the gun from Shane's hands before he was able to retaliate. She stood above him and pulled her arm back. Before Shane could even blink, she pulled through and whipped him across the face with the butt of the gun, not hard enough to knock him out but enough to bruise him. Shane fell onto his back with a pained grunt. Caterina stepped over him so that she was standing with her feet on either side of his waist and aimed the gun down at him.

"Cat!" Rick shouted.

Caterina ignored him, never taking her eyes off of Shane. "Are you done?" she asked, her face and tone deathly calm. When Shane didn't answer, she pumped the shotgun threateningly.

"Yeah, I guess we all are," Shane finally answered.

She continued to stare down at him for a moment before lowering the shotgun and stepped away from Shane. "Next time, I suggest you think about where you're aiming," she warned.

Shane just continued to stare up at her.

Caterina turned and held the shotgun out to Rick, who was staring at her with a hint of pride mixed amongst his initial surprise at what had just happened. He took the shotgun slowly and gave a grateful nod, which she returned with a nod of her own.

She glanced past Rick at where Daryl was standing, staring at her. As soon as she met his gaze, she turned away, turning back to Rick. He'd had a peculiar look in his eye, one that she couldn't remember ever seeing from him. She wasn't sure how to describe it exactly, but the closest thing would be…hunger.

"I think you're lyin'," Rick accused of Jenner after a moment of silence.

"What?" the doctor asked, confused.

"You're lyin'," he repeated. "About no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It _does_ matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to," Jenner replied as he stood to meet Rick's challenge. "I made a promise—to her." He pointed to the main screen. "My wife."

"Test Subject 19 was your wife?" Lori stated more than asked.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying."

Caterina picked up the sound of metal scraping against metal again, and she looked at the door to see that Daryl was hacking away at the doors again. He'd apparently had enough of listening to the others talk.

"It should've been me on that table," Jenner continued. "I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. _She_ was a lost to the _world_. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just…Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice," Rick said. "You do. That's all we want—a choice, a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can," Lori begged him.

Jenner sighed to himself as he thought over what they had said. "I told you, topside's locked down," he muttered after a moment. "I can't open those." He walked back down to the computers beneath the main screen and swiped his ID card over the keypad that Caterina had seen him messing with before. He typed in a pass code, and the metal doors opened again.

"Come on! Let's go!" Daryl called out to the others.

Everyone was quick to run up the ramp towards the door. Caterina noticed that Rick was still talking to Jenner, and she hesitated, unsure of whether or not she should stop and wait for him. But it was decided for her when she heard Daryl's voice.

"Hey!" he shouted out to her. "Come on!"

Caterina looked between Rick and Daryl uncertainly before she hurried after the others. "Shane!" she called out as she neared the doors. "Help me grab everything!"

She ran into the first room that she came to and set about gathering up all of the bags in that room before moving on to the next. Once she had grabbed as much as she could carry, she hurried back to the labs where the others were still waiting. She could see Rick still talking with Jenner in the stadium, but the others didn't seem to be paying them any attention.

Caterina dropped all of the bags to the floor so that everyone could grab what was theirs.

Lori ran down to where Rick was still standing with Jenner and grabbed him, silently ushering him away from the doctor.

"Hey!" Glenn shouted from where he stood with Carl. "We've got four minutes left! Come on!"

Shane came jogging up behind Caterina. "Here," he said, holding her bag out to her.

"Thanks." She took her pack from him and slid one strap over her shoulder. She noticed that Shane was also holding her and Daryl's crossbows. She nodded to Daryl's. "I'll take that," she said. She figured that Daryl wouldn't mind. At any rate, he was still wielding that fire axe.

Shane didn't even question it as he over handed Daryl's crossbow before giving Caterina her own.

"Let's go!" T-Dog said as he ushered Jacqui up the ramp. "Let's go!"

"No," Jacqui said as she pulled out of T-Dog's grasp. "No, I'm stayin'! I'm stayin', sweetie."

"But that's insane!"

"No, it's completely sane! For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy," she said. She glanced at the others. "There's no time to argue, and no point, not if you wanna get out." She pushed on T-Dog's shoulders gently. "Just get out. Get out."

Shane walked down to the two of them. "T-Dog. Come on, man," he said as he gently pulled him away from Jacqui. "Come on! Let's go! Let's go!"

Dale stepped down to where Jacqui was, silently asking why she would do such a thing. Jacqui just shook her head and turned away. Dale then turned his gaze on Andrea, who hadn't moved from her spot by the computers.

"I'm staying too," Andrea answered Dale's questioning gaze.

"Andrea, _no_," Dale pleaded.

Andrea just turned away from him and sunk down behind the computers.

Dale turned and waved the others off. "Just go! Go!"

Caterina nodded in understand and turned to usher everyone out of the lab. "Come on, move!" she urged them. She took one step after them as they started down the hall before pausing to throw one last glance back at the four still in the lab. She gazed around at all of them for a moment before she hurried after the others.

* * *

As soon as they made it to the main foyer, T-Dog bolted over to the doors. He tried pushing on the doors to open them, but the metal shutters prevented them from opening. So, in his desperation, he started to kick at them.

"Get them doors open!" Shane shouted as everyone filed into the foyer.

Glenn ran over to help T-Dog. "It doesn't work!" he said when the doors still wouldn't open.

T-Dog hurried over to the security pad next to the doors. "Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" He tried punching in a few buttons and turned back to Glenn. "Try it! Try it now!"

Glenn tried to open the doors again, but it still wouldn't work.

"That isn't going to work!" Caterina called to T-Dog as he tried typing in a random pass code. "Our only chance is to break the glass."

"I'm on it!" Shane said. He took off towards the other side of the room. "Daryl!" he said, motioning for the hunter to follow. They ran over to a staircase on the side of the room. Shane dropped the duffle bag that he'd been carrying, and he and Daryl started trying to hack away at the windows.

"Stay close, sweetheart," Carol said as she pulled her daughter to her side.

T-Dog came running up behind Daryl and Shane, holding a metal-framed chair. "Daryl, look out!" he cried. Daryl and Shane both dove to the side as T-Dog came up the stairs. He reared back and swung the chair at the glass, but all it did was scrape against it.

"That's not going to work either!" Caterina said as T-Dog continued to try and break the glass with the chair. "The glass is too strong!"

"Dog, get down!" Shane shouted as he took the Mossberg 590 from Rick. "Get down!" he shouted again, and T-Dog dropped the chair as he hurried away from the glass. While the others all ducked to the ground, Shane stepped out so that he was standing in front of the window, and he fired. The bullet just bounced off the glass. "Jesus…" he muttered in disbelief.

"The glass won't break?" Sophia squeaked fearfully.

"We need something stronger," Caterina said as she climbed back onto her feet.

"Cat?" Carol called, pulling Caterina's attention to her. She came up beside her, digging through her purse. "I have something that might help."

"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna do it," Shane scoffed.

Carol ignored him. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your clothes, I found this in one of your pockets," she said as she pulled something from her purse.

Caterina looked down at Carol's outstretched hand and grinned when she saw the grenade that she had lifted off that soldier back in Atlanta. "Carol, I absolutely love you," she expressed. She took the grenade and headed over to the window. "Everyone get down!" she shouted over her shoulder. She stepped up onto the window frame and knelt down, pressing the lever. She glanced around the room to make sure that everyone was covered before pulling the pin. She set it down by the window and hauled ass towards the stairs. She jumped over the stairs just as the grenade detonated, and the blast sent her flying forward. She hit the ground on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and slid across the floor a little ways.

Rick and Daryl were quick to go to her side. Rick knelt down and rolled her over onto her side as she groaned. "You okay?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah," she grunted. "I've always loved flying."

Rick chuckled while Daryl gave a small smile.

"Come on," Rick said as he held out his hand to her. Caterina grabbed, and he pulled her onto her feet. "Let's go!" he shouted to the others. "Now!"

Caterina followed everyone through the window but to knock an arrow when she saw the walkers in the yard. She leapt down after Daryl and ran with him across the lawn. She fired the arrow into a walker's head as it took a step towards Daryl. He glanced back to nod at her in thanks before he turned back around and chopped the head off another walker with his axe.

She continued to follow the others to where their caravan was parked, killing whatever walker stood in their way. While everyone gathered into their respective cars, Caterina followed Daryl to his truck at the back of the caravan.

"Get in!" she shouted as she wrenched the passenger side door open. She threw her backpack and Daryl's crossbow inside before glancing back at the CDC building. She paused when she saw Dale and Andrea climbing out of the window. She didn't get a chance to be relieved, however, as someone in the RV started honking the horn. She climbed into the truck quickly.

"Get down!" Daryl said.

Caterina ducked down over the console obediently without a second thought. She felt Daryl cover her head with his torso, just before an explosion rocked the truck. Once the tremor stopped, she felt the weight above her disappear, and she sat up to look out of the window at the large fire where the building had once stood.

"Jesus," she panted. Her breathing was a bit heavy from the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

"You can say that again," Daryl mumbled.

Caterina and Daryl looked at each other. Almost instantly, the air between them became awkward.

"Thanks…" Caterina said, but her voice trailed off before she could say what she meant.

But Daryl understood. "Yeah…" he grunted with a nod.

Caterina looked through the rear window at Shane's Jeep to check if he was all right, and she gave a breathy sigh of relief when she saw him safely in his car. She turned back around in her seat and dropped her head back on the headrest.


	13. Chapter 12

Once they were far enough away from Atlanta, the group set to work getting ready to head to Fort Benning. Since the CDC had been a failure, they decided to go with Shane's plan. If Fort Benning was operation, they would hopefully be able to find salvation there.

Caterina helped gather gas and any other supplies that they would need for the trip. Once everything was set up, she gathered up her things and started for the RV. Daryl was going to leave the truck behind and use Merle's motorcycle instead. Caterina felt that it would be a good excuse to put a bit more distance between her and Daryl. She was afraid of what was starting to develop there. It had been a long time since she'd felt any sort of physical or romantic attraction to anyone, so she wasn't sure what to do about it. All she _did_ know was that it couldn't work.

She stopped and looked over her shoulder as she heard the roar of the motorcycle engine coming up from behind. Her heart skipped a beat as Daryl pulled up next to her.

"Where're you goin'?" Daryl asked.

"Well, you're leaving the truck behind, so I figured it'd be better if I—" Caterina started, but Daryl didn't seem interested in what she had to say.

He rolled his eyes. "Just shut up and get on."

Caterina blinked, not quite sure how to respond.

"Well?" Daryl said impatiently. "I don't got all day."

She hesitated. While the thought of riding with Daryl was tempting, she didn't think it was such a good idea, especially not if she wanted to distance herself from him. But it didn't seem that Daryl was going to take no for an answer. So she fixed her crossbow to her back and climbed onto the motorcycle behind Daryl.

"Son, let's saddle up!" Dale called out to Shane.

Caterina looked over at Shane, who had been standing behind the RV. She met his gaze and nodded to him. She still didn't quite trust him after everything that had happened back in the CDC, but he was a member of their group. No matter how much she disliked or distrusted him, she would treat him as she always did, up until the point where it was obvious that he didn't deserve it anymore.

"Hold on," Daryl instructed as he revved the motorcycle engine.

Caterina tentatively wrapped her arms around his waist and propped her feet up on the rear footrests as Daryl drove off in front of the caravan. She felt his abdominal muscles flex beneath her hand when he tensed slightly at her tough, but he relaxed again before she could think more of it.

* * *

They rode for what felt like half an hour, but what was actually several hours. Caterina had at one point laid her head on Daryl's back to get a bit of rest. She knew that she shouldn't, but she was far too tired to really care about the consequences. If she were honest, she been feeling tired ever since they first entered the CDC. She was pretty sure it was more of an emotional and mental exhaustion than it was a physical one. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about that. No amount of sleep would make her feel any better.

When she did rest her head on Daryl's back, Caterina felt him tense beneath her arms. She had at the time contemplated sitting back up, but he relaxed soon enough, so she assumed that he didn't mind it too much.

She was still in that position, her eyes closed, when she felt Daryl's torso vibrate with his voice.

"Shit," he muttered.

Caterina raised her head to look up over Daryl's shoulder. "What? Oh…" She trailed off as she saw what it was that made Daryl curse.

They had come upon a car graveyard, the first they had encountered since she first started traveling with this group. It was much larger than the one that she and Rick had stumbled across the first time after they met. And this one had a much stronger stench of death to it than the one outside of Atlanta had.

She stared around as Daryl drove through a ways to see how bad it was, trying to ignore all of the decaying bodies that had been left to rot in some of the cars. There were way too many abandoned cars. It would be very difficult finding some way for the RV to get through.

"It's gonna be hell getting the Winnebago through this," Caterina voiced her thoughts.

"You're tellin' me," Daryl grumbled. He turned the motorcycle around and drove back through to the RV. He pulled it to a stop next to the driver's side window, and both he and Caterina set their feet on the pavement to keep themselves balanced.

Dale poked his head out the open window. "See a way through?" he asked.

Both Daryl and Caterina looked back over their shoulders at the maze of cars. There was a pathway through, but exactly how far they'd be able to go was the problem.

Caterina placed her feet back on the rear pegs as Daryl circled back around the RV to try to lead it through the graveyard. They had just reached a dead-end when she heard that familiar sputtering behind them. She looked back at the RV and saw that the radiator was smoking again. Daryl heard it as well, and he looked back to see the same thing.

"For the love of…" Daryl groaned in exasperation. He turned off the motorcycle and kicked down the kickstand while Caterina untangled herself from him and slid off of the bike so that she could approach the RV while the others started filing out of their vehicles.

"I said it," Dale sighed. "Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope…" He trailed off as he looked around at all of the abandoned cars surrounding them. "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Shane hinted.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," Daryl said as he dug through the back of a nearby sedan. He was pulling out random things. When he found something that he didn't think would be useful, he tossed back into the sedan and picked up something else.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-Dog agreed.

"Maybe some water," Carol said hopefully.

"Food," Glenn added.

"This is a graveyard," Lori pointed out. Everyone turned to look at her, suddenly realizing the same thing. But nobody said anything. It was obvious that they all felt guilty now that she had said it, but you had to do what you had to do. "I don't know how I feel about this," she continued.

"I understand where you're coming from, Lori," Caterina said, "but, if we're gonna survive, pillaging is a necessity. The most that we can do is agree not to steal from the living, but a dead man's cargo is anyone's game."

"All right, all right," T-Dog said as he walked back to the RV. "Here we go."

"Come on, y'all," Shane said. "Just look around. Gather what you can."

Caterina grabbed an empty backpack from one of the nearby cars before she wandered off further into the maze. She didn't see the point in staying close to the others. She could take care of herself, as could a majority of the group. At any rate, she would be sticking close enough that she'd be able to hear if anything went wrong.

When she had gotten a fair ways away from everyone, she heard a voice call out to her.

"Don't wander too far, Caterina!" Dale shouted just loud enough that she could hear him.

Caterina paused and looked back at Dale, whom she could see standing on top of the RV. She gave him a thumbs up in place of calling back. Dale just shook his head at her recklessness, and Caterina grinned cheekily, knowing that he could see it.

She approached a blue mini-van with its trunk wide open. She paused to glance around to ensure that it was safe before she started rummaging through the stack of boxes and totes, looking for anything the group could use. She blinked as she came upon a box filled with non-perishable foods. "Here we go go…" she muttered in delight. She opened up the backpack and started piling the food inside.

She froze as she heard footsteps behind her. They weren't loud or shuffled, but she definitely heard them. She slowly took her hand from inside of the box and lowered it to the buck knife strapped to her thigh. The footsteps grew closer, and she snatched up her knife and spun on around, ready to stab whoever it was, but a rough hand caught her wrist before she could.

She gave a sigh of relief when she realized that it was Daryl. She opened her mouth to tell him off for scaring her, but Daryl slapped his hand over her mouth before she get anything out. He pulled her around to the other side of the van and forced her to kneel down so that she was out of sight.

"Get under the van," Daryl instructed quietly. "There's a shit load o' walkers comin' through." He finally pulled his hand away from Caterina's mouth and made to leave.

Caterina grabbed Daryl's arm. "Where are you going?" she hissed.

"Gonna make sure the others are safe."

She nodded in understanding and grabbed her crossbow from her shoulder, one hand still clasped around her knife. She moved to sneak around the side of the van, but Daryl's hand clamped down on her shoulders and he pulled her back.

"Whoa, you're not goin'," he said.

"The hell I'm not," she answered, a bit too loudly for either of their tastes. She paused to glance through the windows of the van to check if the walkers had come close enough to have heard her. When she didn't see anything, she turned back to Daryl. "I'm not gonna just let you go off on your own," she whispered harshly. "I don't give a damn how good of a fighter you are."

Daryl opened his mouth to argue but seemed to think better of it. "Fine," he relented after a moment. He pointed at her harshly. "But you stay close, all right? I don't wanna have to save your ass."

With that, Daryl gripped his crossbow and started to make his way back up the road. Caterina rolled her eyes behind his back and followed after him.

The two silently made their way back up through the maze of cars, checking that the others were hidden from the herd. They ducked and weaved between cars, keeping themselves hidden from the walkers as they maneuvered through. They were knelt down behind a over-turned tan Corolla when Caterina spotted a fresh trail of blood leading away from them. She reached out and tapped Daryl on the shoulder to gain his attention. He looked back at her curiously, and she nodded to the blood. Daryl looked down at it before meeting Caterina's gaze again, and he nodded in understanding.

After waiting for a few walkers to pass, the two darted out from behind the car to follow the trail. They peaked around another overturn car and saw T-Dog sitting behind the open driver side door of an old Chevrolet. Caterina nodded for Daryl to go on ahead while kept an eye out for any more walkers coming their way.

Daryl silently moved away from Caterina, leaving her to herself. She waited until she heard two dull knocks on the pavement before following the trail to where Daryl and T-Dog were. She paused as she saw the blood soaking T-Dog's shirt from a large gash on his arm. She took a step towards them only to stop again when she saw something moving from the corner of her eye. She looked up the road and saw that the horde approaching. She shuffled behind a nearby car before lowering herself to the ground. She knocked on the pavement twice, and Daryl turned towards the sound. Once the two locked eyes, Caterina nodded towards the oncoming group of walkers. Daryl followed her gaze and turned to T-Dog, motioning for him to keep quiet. He grabbed both of T-Dog legs and pulled on them until T-Dog was lying flat on the pavement. He then grabbed a nearby corpse and laid it over T-Dog to keep him hidden from the walker. Caterina silently applauded Daryl's quick-thinking, and she snatched up another corpse to do the same.

Caterina stayed perfectly still as the walkers moved staggered towards them. She tensed as she felt a few bump into her as they stumbled past, but she refused to move even a muscle. She didn't want to alert them to her presence. It would just put the others in danger.

It wasn't until she could no longer hear their shuffling footsteps that she shoved the corpse off her. She quickly got to her knees and moved the body off of T-Dog, afraid that anymore exposure would infect his wound.

She glanced up at Daryl as he crawled over to them. "We've gotta get him to the others," she said.

Daryl nodded. "Right." He reached out and grabbed T-Dog by the shirt so he could lift him up into a sitting position. He was obviously too weak to sit up on his own.

Caterina slipped her knife back into its holster and held her hand out to Daryl, who looked up at her in question. "Give me your rag," she explained.

Daryl reached into his back pocket and pulled out the cloth that he always kept on him. He handed it over to Caterina, and she wrapped it tightly around the gash in T-Dog's arm. The man winced at the pain, but Caterina either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Here." She grabbed T-Dog's free hand and placed it over the rag. "Hold it there," she instructed before she raised his arm above his head. "And try to keep your arms up."

T-Dog nodded and did as she was told, although his arms shook from the effort.

Caterina reached down and unclipped her Buck knife, tossing it to Daryl. The hunter watched a bit uncomfortably as Caterina undid her belt, his uneasiness evident on his face, though no one noticed it. Once her belt was off, Caterina tied it around T-Dog's arm, just above the gash, to still the flow of blood a bit. "That should do for now," she muttered. "Come on, let's get you up." She stood up only to kneel back down and grab T-Dog's arm, making sure to place her hand on the wrap over his wound. She wanted to keep as much pressure on it as she could while they were moving him.

T-Dog groaned at the added pressure.

"I'm sorry," she apologized as she put his uninjured arm over her shoulder, helping him onto his feet.

Daryl was quick to stand up and follow her example. Once Daryl had him secured on the other side, the three of them started back towards the RV. When they got there, Caterina noticed the others—minus Rick and Sophia—standing by the road railing near the RV.

"Dale!" Caterina called out as they neared the others.

Everyone turned at the sound of her voice.

"Oh God…" Glenn muttered when he saw the condition that T-Dog was in.

"What happened?" Lori questioned frightfully.

"I guess he cut himself on a car," Caterina explained before turning her gaze back upon Dale. "Do you have any bandages?" she inquired.

"Yeah, in the RV," Dale replied. "I'll go get them."

Caterina nodded. "Thanks." While Dale went into the RV, she looked up at Daryl. "You can let go. I've got him," she assured him. Daryl looked a bit hesitant, but he pulled T-Dog's arm from around his neck, allowing Caterina to take on the African-American's full weight. She gave slightly at the sudden weight, but she was able to stabilize herself quickly enough. "Where's Rick?" she wondered as she gazed around at the others.

"He went after Sophia," Lori explained. "She got run off the road by a couple of walkers."

Caterina looked at Carol and instantly saw the distress on her face. "Is anyone going after them?" she asked. "Make sure they're okay?"

"I will," Shane volunteered. "They've been gone way too long."

"Me too," Glenn said.

"I'll go too," Daryl said. Caterina looked at him in silent surprise, as did Shane. Daryl saw this, and he shrugged nonchalantly. "Someone's gotta make sure you don't get lost."

"Here's those bandages," Dale said as he came back out of the RV.

She turned her gaze on Dale and smiled. "Thanks." She exchanged her crossbow for the bandages and helped T-Dog over to the RV. She sat him down on the stairs and set to work patching him up. A doctor she was not, but she'd tended enough wounds back on the field that she was pretty good at it. She was never able to do anything permanent, but she was good at temporary fixes. That wouldn't be enough for T-Dog, but it was all she could do for now.

Caterina looked back over her shoulder as she heard someone walking up behind her.

"I'm surprised you're not volunteerin' to go with us," Shane said.

"It'll be fine with just the four of you. Besides, someone needs to stay behind and protect the rest of the group." She finished wrapping up T-Dog's arm and stepped back, silently admiring her work. She grabbed her switchblade from its holster on her leg and held it out to Shane. "Here. Give this to Rick when you find him. He might need it."

Shane took the switchblade from her. "I will."

With that, he and the other two headed off into the woods.

Caterina crossed her arms over her chest as she watched the three of them. Just before Daryl stepped over the railing, she called out. "Hey, Daryl!"

Daryl hesitated, one leg in the air, and looked back at her.

"You'd better take care of that knife, or else I'll have to kick your ass when you get back," she threatened. She smirked to show that she was joking—at least partially. She really might actually kick his ass if he lost her knife. The same with Shane or Rick, depending on who lost it.

Daryl stared at Caterina for a moment before nodding, and he followed Shane and Glenn into the trees.

* * *

**Daryl's (Third Person) Point of View**

Daryl stood in the creek where Rick said that he'd left Sophia. He and the others had run into him on their way to look for them. Apparently, he'd lost Sophia after he led away the walkers that had been following them. He couldn't see any tracks indicating that she had left the area, but that didn't make him stop looking.

"You sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked as he walked along the line of creek.

"I left her right here," Rick said, pointing to a small opening in the brush at the edge of the creek. "I drew the walkers away off in that direction, up the creek."

"Without a paddle—seems where we've landed," he muttered.

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her, go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder."

Daryl walked over to the area that Rick had indicated and searched the soil there for any footprints. He saw something move in his peripheral vision, and he looked up at Glenn, who was standing at the top of the drop. "Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side?" he suggested. "You're muckin' up the trail."

Glenn mumbled an apology as he moved to the side.

"Assumin' she knows her left from her right," Shane said in response to what Rick had said.

"Shane, she understood me fine," Rick argued.

"Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Gotta wonder how much of what you said stuck."

"Got clear prints right here," Daryl announced once he'd spotted a fresh trail of small footprints, the size of a little girl's. He looked over at Rick. "She did like you said. Headed back to the highway. Let's spread out. Make our way back." He reached up for Shane's hand and allowed him to pull him up out of the creek.

"Let's go," Shane agreed. "She couldn't have got far." While Daryl and Glenn started to follow the trail, Shane held out a hand to stop Rick. "Hey, we're gonna find her," he assured his best friend quietly. "She'll be tuckered out in a bush somewhere."

Rick nodded gratefully.

* * *

Daryl lad them slowly back up towards the highway, his eyes always trained on the ground. He followed the trail to about half a mile from the highway, where it suddenly veered off to the right. He frowned and knelt down next to where it turned off.

"She was doin' just fine till right here," he muttered. "All she had to do was keep goin'. She veered off that way," he said, motioning to where the trail led.

"Why would she do that?" Glenn wondered.

"Maybe she saw somethin' that spooked her, made her run off," Shane offered.

"A walker?"

Daryl searched the trail in front of him for signs that anything else had gone the same way. "I don't see any other footprints," he said. "Just hers."

"So what do we do?" Shane asked. "All of us press on?"

"No, better you and Glenn get back up to the highway," Rick replied. "People are gonna start panickin'. Let 'em know we're on her trail doin' everythin' we can but, most of all, keep everyone calm."

"I'll keep 'em busy scavengin' cars," Shane reassured. "Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied." He motioned for Glenn to follow him as he turned back to the highway. "Come on." He took a few steps before he remembered the switchblade that Caterina had given him. "Hold up. I almost forgot." He pulled the switchblade from his pocket and held it out to Rick. "Here."

Rick took the switchblade. "What's this?"

"Cat's knife," he replied. "She told me to give it to you, said you might need it. If you're goin' off with Daryl without a weapon, I guess she was right."

"Tell her thank you for me."

Shane nodded before motioning for Glenn to follow him again. "Come on, Glenn."

Daryl stared at Cat's knife in Rick's hand for a moment, his jaw tense. He didn't know why, but it made him angry to think that she gave up her knife like that, that she had asked Shane to give it to Rick. He knew that she was the closest to Rick than anyone else in the group, and that pissed him off for some reason. Then again, she had entrusted him with one of her knives as well. That thought calmed him down a bit, which confused him to no end.

He shook this off, deciding it was for the best to ignore these odd thoughts for now, and he started along Sophia's trail.

* * *

**Regular Point of View**

Caterina stood on top of the RV, Barrett REC7 in hand. It had belonged to her father. He had also been in the military in his youth. He gave the gun to her when she was younger. She'd always been a good shot, and her father had seen it as a gift to be nurtured. So he gave her the Barrett to encourage her to go continue it.

She gazed up and down the stretch of the highway, keeping a look out for any more walkers. Every now and again, she'd look over towards the woods that Rick and Daryl were still in, looking around for Sophia. Glenn and Shane had come back not too long ago, saying that the others were still just following their trail. She was tempted to go after them to help, but she was needed with the others.

"Why aren't we all out there looking?" Carol asked suddenly. "Why are we moving cars?"

"We have to clear enough room so that I can get the RV turned round as soon as it's running," Dale said. "Now that we have fuel, we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map."

"Goin' back's gonna be easier than tryin' to get through this mess," Shane agreed.

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back," Carol said.

"Hey," Lori said. "That goes without saying."

"Rick and Daryl—they're on it, okay?" Shane assured Carol. "Just a matter of time."

"Can't be soon enough for me," Andrea said. "I'm still freaked out from that heard that passed us by. Or whatever you would call it."

"Yeah, what was that?" Glenn wondered. "All of them just marching along like that."

"A herd sounds about right," Caterina said. She looked down from her perch on the RV as the group turned to look at her curiously. "I've seen it a few times. It's like the night camp was attacked. For some reason, they like to wander around in packs, though they're usually much smaller than the one that just came through here."

A silence fell over the group as they thought over her words.

"Okay, come on, people," Shane said after a moment. "We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it."

* * *

**Daryl's (Third Person) Point of View**

The further they went, the harder it became to see the trail. Daryl eventually had to slow down so that he could get a closer look at the ground to see where the footprints led. If he hadn't been so good at tracking, he probably would've missed them. But he was, so the trail was clear to him. He was able to spot every footprint, every broken trig, every crushed leaf…

"Tracks are gone," Rick said as he knelt down next to Daryl.

"No, they're faint, but they ain't gone," Daryl said. He motioned to the faint trail that was leading them further into the woods. "She came through here." He stood back up and stepped over a fallen log.

"How can you tell?" Rick wondered. "I don't see anythin'. Dirt, grass…"

"You want a lesson in trackin', or you wanna find that girl and get our ass off that interstate?"

* * *

**Regular Point of View**

"Shane!" Carl cried out.

Caterina looked towards Carl's voice and saw him running through the maze of cars towards Shane, who was working on a green Hyundai Tucson. Carl was carrying a rolled up tarp with something tucked inside. Caterina watched as he and his mom spoke for a moment before he knelt down to roll the trap out on the ground. She couldn't quite see what was inside from where she was, but she guessed that it was some kind of weapon or something. She was proven correct when she saw him swinging around a hatchet.

This could only lead to trouble, Caterina thought.

Lori, Shane, and Carl exchanged a few more words before the kid started to walk back towards the RV, holding the rolled up tarp under his arm once more. She could see the dejected look on his face even from far away.

Once he was close enough for them to speak easily, Caterina called out to him.

"Hey, Carl!" she said. "What do you have there?"

"Just some weapons," Carl replied gloomily.

"Weapons?" she reiterated. "Where did you find those?"

Carl nodded to a truck further up the road. "In that truck over there."

Caterina set her rifle down on the roof of the RV before jumping down. She got a disapproving look from Dale for it, but she just gave him an innocent smile as she walked forward to meet Carl. "Can I see?" she asked. Carl nodded and handed her the rolled up tarp. She took it and rolled it out on the ground in front of her. There were all of types of weapons tucked away inside—the hatchet that Carl had been playing with, three buck knives and a butcher knife, and a machete. She let out a low whistle. "This is a pretty impressive find."

"Yeah?" Carl asked, his tone hopeful now.

"Absolutely," she assured. She reached out and ruffled Carl's hair affectionately. "Good job, kid."

Carl smiled widely. "Thanks!"

Caterina knelt down and grabbed the edge of the tarp to start rolling it back up.

"Um…Cat?" the kid said hesitantly. "Do you think I can have one?"

"Well, what did your mom say?" she asked, not looking away from what she was doing. When Carl didn't reply, she looked up at him. She could tell from his dejected expression that Lori had told him no. "Sorry, kiddo. I'd really rather not invoke your mother's wrath by going against her word," she jested. She grinned as that rose a smile from him.

A distorted voice suddenly speaking through the radio of one of the cars, gaining Caterina's attention.

She grabbed the weapons that Carl had found and handed them back to him. "Why don't you take these and put them away in the RV?" she suggested.

"Okay," Carl said.

As Carl walked into the RV, Caterina stood up and moved towards the broadcaster voice.

"The Office of Civil Defense has issued the following message," the voice announced. "Normal broadcasting will cease immediately. This is a civil emergency."

"Is that a local signal?" Glenn asked.

"It's gotta be within fifty miles of here," Dale said.

"Not that it matters," Caterina added. "This is probably playing on every radio station nation-wide."

"Avoid anyone infected at all costs," the voice went on. "Remain calm. Help is on the way. Emergency alert system has—"

"It's playing on a loop," she muttered.

"Asshole," Shane sighed as he shut off the radio. "Okay, let's get back to work. Cat, you get back up on the RV."

Caterina nodded. "Sure thing." She turned away slowly and started back towards the RV, but she paused when she saw Shane putting a suitcase in the back of the Tucson. She looked at Lori, but she just shook her head. Caterina was hella curious why Shane seemed to be packing up, but she decided that it wasn't any of her business and continued on her way.


	14. Chapter 13

**Author's Note:**

So here's the next installment of A Soldier's Heart! This part isn't really up to my usual standards, I feel, but I just got back from a baby shower and I'm exhausted! Still, I hope that you guys continue to enjoy the story. I'm glad that you all seem to like Caterina so much. I actually based her off of a good friend of mine :)

* * *

**~*Daryl's Point of View*~**

The footsteps continued to grow fainter the longer that Daryl and Rick stayed out, but not enough that Daryl couldn't find them. It was only thanks to all the time that he spent out hunting with Merle and his pops that he managed to follow the trail so far. They had to have been several miles out, but neither of them even mentioned going back to the others. They were determined to keep going until they found Sophia, or until the trail ran cold.

There was a rustling from up ahead, and Daryl and Rick knelt down instantly. The two exchanged quick looks before shuffling closer to the edge of the hill that they were currently on. Daryl raised his head as much as he could to see where it had come from, and he gave a quiet sigh when he saw a walker meandering along up ahead. Luckily, it didn't seem to have noticed them. Daryl clicked his tongue to get Rick's attention and motioned for him to go on ahead and get the walker's attention from the front while he came up on it from behind.

Rick nodded in understanding and started sneaking down the hill.

Daryl stood up and silently made his way down to the level that the walker was on. While Rick ran out in front of the walker, Daryl crept up behind it until he had a clear lock. Rick stopped a little ways ahead and whistled to gain the walker's attention. As soon as it spotted him, it let out a hungry roar and, before it could take one step forward, Daryl raised his crossbow and fired an arrow into the back of its head. The walker fell silent as soon as the arrow pierced his head, and it fell to the ground with a muffled _thud!_ Daryl exchanged a look with Rick before the two stepped up next to the corpse.

Daryl stepped down on the walker's shoulder and yanked his arrow out of its head. Now that the danger had been cleared, he looked around for any signs of the little girl. "Sophia!" he shouted as loudly as he dared.

There was no response.

Daryl looked down at Rick as he knelt at the walker's side. Hepulled a pair of gardening gloves from his pocket and started examining the walker's hand. "What're you lookin' for?" he wondered.

"Skin under the fingernails," Rick muttered in response.

He blinked, realizing what Rick meant. He was looking for any sign that the walker had been anywhere near Sophia. He leaned forward to brace himself on his knees so that he could get a closer look at what Rick was doing.

Rick rolled the corpse over onto its back and opened its mouth so that he could examine its teeth. "It fed recently," he observed. He reached into the mouth and tried to grab the bit of flesh that he saw there, but it was stuck pretty well. "There's flesh caught in its teeth." He finally managed to pull the chunk of flesh out of its teeth, and he held it up to examine it a bit more closely.

"Yeah, but what kinda flesh?" Daryl asked.

Rick looked up at Daryl with a hesitant look on his face. "Only one way to know for sure." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the switchblade that Cat had given to Shane to lend to him.

As soon as he understood what Rick meant to do, Daryl reached out and grabbed Rick's shoulder to stop him as he readied the switchblade. "Here, I'll do it," he offered. He grabbed another pair of gardening gloves from his own pocket and slid them on before putting one foot over the walker so that he was standing over it. He reached down for Cat's Buck knife, which he had clipped to his waist. "How many kills you skin and gutted in your life?" he almost scoffed. "Anyway, mine's sharper."

Rick looked at the knife in Daryl's hand. "Isn't that Cat's knife?" he asked.

"Yup," he answered distractedly. "She gave it to me when she took off her belt earlier."

Rick raised his brow in surprise. "Why did she take off her belt?"

Daryl gave Rick an odd look. "T-Dog cut his arm, and she used it as a tourniquet. What d'ya think?"

Rick didn't say anything, but he had an comfortable expression on his face now.

Daryl rolled his eyes and readied himself to skin the walker. He paused for a moment before thrusting Cat's knife down into the walker's abdomen. He grunted as he pulled the knife down, letting it cut on through the walker's flesh as if it were butter. He had noticed before that Cat sharpened her knives almost religiously. He guessed that they were pretty special to her, especially since she had threatened to kick his ass if he didn't take care of her knife. And he knew that she could. She was military, after all.

He shook his head fiercely as he realized that his thoughts had wandered off to Cat again when he should be concentrating on the task at hand.

He worked on cutting open the walker's stomach and severing its rib cage in order to give himself better access to the organs, ignoring the horrible stench that the corpse gave off. Once he was finished, Daryl carefully placed the Buck knife on the ground next to him, making a mental note of where it was so that he wouldn't lose it. God knew what Cat would do to him if he did.

Daryl looked at Rick, who had been watching the whole thing in disgust. He sure wasn't the hunting type. "Now comes the bad part," he muttered. He took in a deep breath and plunged his hands into the mess of organs.

He pulled out one of its kidneys and threw it aside before ripping out a part of its intestines, trying to clear a path to the walker's stomach. He silently thanked all the times that Merle had made him skin whatever game they got on their hunts. Otherwise, he was sure that he'd be throwing up right about now. He gripped the walker's stomach in his hands and squeezed it , feeling for whatever he had eaten recently. There was something pretty big in there, but he couldn't tell what just from feeling it.

"Yeah, Hoss had a big meal not too long ago," Daryl grunted. "I feel it in there." He dipped his hands under the stomach and pulled it out with a sickening _plop!_ He tossed it down onto the ground in front of Rick. "Here's the gut bag."

"I got this," Rick assured him as he grabbed the switchblade again.

Daryl sat back and watched as Rick used Cat's switchblade to slice open the walker's stomach. Once he had, Daryl reached out to poke around inside in an attempt to find whatever it was that the walker had eaten. He glanced up as Rick flicked a mess of goop off Cat's switchblade. When he looked back down, he spotted what looked to be a skull in the stomach. He grabbed Cat's Buck knife and used it to pick the skull out of the gut bag. After a closer inspection, he realized what it had belonged to.

"This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch," Daryl observed as he flicked the skull off the tip of Cat's knife.

Rick gave a breath of relief. "At least we know."

"At least we know," Daryl agreed. He stood up and removed one of his gloves before wiping Cat's blade off on his pants. Once he was satisfied that it was clean enough (at least for now), he put the knife back in its holster. He nodded to the switchblade in Rick's hand. "You might wanna clean that off before we get back."

"You're right. Cat'll kill us if we give 'em back with walker guts all over it."

Daryl snorted a laugh as he snatched up his crossbow and loose arrow. "Ain't that the truth."

* * *

**~*Regular Point of View*~**

It was starting to get dark, and Rick and Daryl still hadn't made it back with Sophia. Caterina was starting to worry . What if her knives and Daryl's crossbow hadn't been enough? What if they had run into another herd out in the woods and were overrun? Caterina waved those thoughts away as soon as they entered her head. She couldn't afford to think like that. She had to believe that they were alive and would be back soon, with Sophia.

"It's late," Carol said as Andrea came up on her side. "Gonna be dark soon."

"They'll find her," Andrea tried to assure her. Carol nodded, although Caterina was sure that she didn't quite believe it. Andrea rubbed her shoulder soothingly before turning back and approaching Glenn and Dale, who were still working on the RV. "Where's my gun?" she almost demanded.

Caterina glanced down at where Andrea and Dale were standing beneath her. She noticed that Glenn had walked off into the maze of cars, probably to give the two a bit of space.

"You had no right to take it," Andrea continued.

"You don't need that just now, do you?" Dale asked.

"My father gave it to me. It's mine."

Dale glanced up at Caterina almost beseechingly before giving Andrea a hesitant smile. "I can hold onto it for you."

"Or you can give it back to me," Andrea countered.

Caterina looked up and met Shane's gaze from where he was helping the others gather up supplies that they had managed to find. Shane nodded to the two below her, and Caterina shrugged, deciding that she didn't want to get in the middle. She was pretty sure that Dale had taken Andrea's gun because of what had happened back at the CDC. Andrea had wanted to stay behind and die with Jenner and Jacqui, but Dale had somehow talked her out of it. He was probably worried that she was still suicidal.

"Everythin' cool?" Shane asked as he approached the two.

"No, I want my gun back," Andrea answered bluntly.

"I don't think it's a good idea right now," Dale told Shane.

"Why not?" Shane asked.

Dale glanced at Andrea before muttering, "I'm not comfortable with it."

Shane looked up at Caterina, who shook her head subtly. He turned his attention back on Dale and Andrea before either of them got suspicious of what he and Caterina were communicating to each other. "The truth is, less guns we have floatin' around camp, the better," he said.

"You turning over your weapon?" Andrea asked.

He chuckled humorlessly. "No, but I'm trained in its use," he pointed out. "That's what the rest y'all need is proper trainin'. But, until that time, I think it's best if Dale keeps them all accounted for."

Andrea scoffed at that, but she didn't bother calling him out on his bogus excuse. Instead, she sent Dale one last, nasty look before turning and stalking away into the maze of cars.

Once she was far enough away, Shane turned to Dale. "Mind tellin' me what that's about?"

Before Dale could answer, Glenn had walked back up behind the two only to stop and gaze off to the side of the road. "Oh God, they're back," he said.

Caterina's head snapped towards the woods, and she saw that Glenn was right—Rick and Daryl were making their way back up to the interstate. She was tempted to jump down and join the others as they crowded around the railing, but she decided that it was best if she stayed up high for now, in case anything had followed the two of them.

Carol waved her hands anxiously when she saw that Sophia wasn't with them. "You didn't find her?" she asked, although the answer was obvious.

"Her trail went cold," Rick answered hesitantly. "We'll pick it up again at first light."

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own," Carol sniffed, "to spend the night alone in the woods."

"Out in the dark's no good," Daryl said in agreement with Rick. "We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people would get lost."

"But she's twelve," Carol argued. "She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?"

Rick exchanged a look with Daryl before turning back to Carol. "I know this is hard, but I'm askin' you not to panic," he said in a soothing tone. "We know she was out there."

"And we tracked her for a while," Daryl added.

"We have to make this an organized effort." Rick looked up at where Caterina was perched. "Cat?" he called out.

Caterina glanced across the tree line. When she didn't see anything moving around there, she dropped down from the top of the RV again, rifle still in hand. She tossed the rifle up so that it was rested up against her shoulder and joined the others at the side of the road. "Yeah?"

"You're good at tracking, right? You learned in training?"

"Sort of," Caterina answered truthfully. "I learned mostly from my brother. I'm pretty decent at it."

Rick nodded. "And Daryl know the woods better than anybody. I want the two of you to oversee this."

Caterina looked past Rick at Daryl, silently asking if it was okay with him. Daryl nodded his approval, and she turned her gaze back on Rick. "No problem."

"Is that…? Is that blood?" Carol asked, staring at Daryl's pants. She was starting to hyperventilate.

Caterina followed Carol's gaze down to the bloodstains on Daryl's pants. It was pretty dark, so she didn't think that it belonged to anyone living. More than likely, it was the blood of a walker. So she'd been right in thinking that they'd encountered them out in the woods, although her exaggeration hadn't been even remotely correct.

"We took down a walker," Rick admitted tentatively.

"Walker?" Carol gasped. "Oh my God…"

"There was no sign that it was ever anywhere near Sophia," he assured her quickly.

"How can you know that?" Andrea wondered.

Rick and Daryl exchanged hesitant looks, Rick silently asking him to take the lead this time around. Daryl seemed to get the hint, as he stepped forward and said, "We cut the sumbitch open—made sure."

"Oh God…" Carol muttered. Her legs shook slightly, and she stumbled over to the railing to sit down. Caterina watched her sympathetically while Lori sat down next to her, placing a comforting hand on her arm. She was probably the only one there that could understand how Carol felt, at least the closest to what she was feeling. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" she asked of Rick. "How could you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us," Rick replied. "I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol," Shane said in Rick's defense.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol sobbed. "She's just a child. She's just a child…"

Rick knelt down so that he could look Carol in the eye without her having to look up at him. "It was my only option. The only choice I could make," he said, almost begging for Carol to understanding why he had done what he did.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane said.

"My little girl got left in the woods," Carol argued.

Caterina's gaze fell to the ground. She really felt for Carol, although probably not how Lori did—how a mother would understand the pain of another mother. She felt for her only in the sense that she was in the same boat, not knowing the fate of a loved one. Sophia was out there alone in a possibly walker-infested forest, and it was too dark to lead any searches. There was no telling what would happen to her, or what had already happened to her.

Caterina understood that pain very well.

When all of this had started, the first thing that she did was go look for her family. She went to her parents' house in Jefferson, Florida as well as her brother Gabriele's place in Henry, Alabama, which he had been sharing with his fiancée, Alison. None of them had been at their homes, but they had left messages for her to find at each of their places, telling her that they were all right and where they'd gone. She searched for them, but she hadn't had any luck in finding them. She could only hope that they were out there still, surviving. But she didn't think that she would ever be certain.

"Caterina?" Dale's voice spoke from somewhere at her side.

Caterina jumped as a large hand fell on her bare shoulder, and she looked up into Dale's worried face. "Yeah?" she asked in what she hoped was a calm tone.

"Are you all right? I've been trying to get your attention for a while now."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just spaced out for a bit," she assured him. "What did you need?" She could tell that Dale wasn't convinced, but he didn't seem to see the need to push it any further.

"Didn't you give your knives to Rick and Daryl?" Dale asked.

Caterina blinked. "Oh yeah, I did."

"Well, Rick's wandered off to search through some more cars and Daryl's gone inside the RV."

"Thanks, Dale." She turned to walk onto the RV, but she was stopped as Dale called after her.

"Caterina?"

She turned, ignoring the fact that he had called her Caterina for the second time. For some reason, since he found out her full name, he'd insisted on calling her by it. It was strange, hearing her full name being used when she wasn't in trouble, like her parents and Gabriele had done. But she didn't particularly mind. At any rate, Dale could be pretty stubborn. Even if she asked him to just call her "Cat," he probably wouldn't.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Dale inquired. "You looked a little sad before."

She realized that Dale must've noticed her expression when she'd been thinking of her family. It always upset her whenever she reminded herself that she didn't know if her mom and dad were alive, or whether Gabriele and Alison were still out there.

She smiled. "I'm fine, Dale. Don't worry." She propped her rifle up against the side of the RV before climbing inside. She paused just in the doorway when she saw Daryl sitting at the table, wiping down her Buck knife with a dry cloth. She was surprised that he was even bothering, or that he was being so gentle with it, seeing as it wasn't his. "I take it you had occasion to use it out there?" she asked, alerting Daryl to her presence.

"I used it to gut that walker we found," Daryl said without even looking up. "Rick had to use your switchblade to open the stomach."

"Well, I'm glad it came in use." She moved further into the RV so that she could stand against the counter. "How far did you end up tracking her?"

"Pretty far," Daryl answered. "I'd say a few miles. She was headin' up to the intestate, but somethin' must've spooked her 'cause she veered off to the right before she could make it back."

"Do you think it was a walker that spooked her?"

"Hell if I know. Alls I know is, she ended up goin' southeast." He tossed the cloth onto the table and stood up, tucking the Buck knife back into its holster before holding it out to Caterina. "Here."

Caterina look her knife back with a slight smile. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Daryl muttered before stalking out of the RV.

She turned and watched Daryl until he passed out of her sight. She smiled to herself and clipped her Buck knife onto her waistband before following him out of the RV. She snatched up her Barrett and slung it over her shoulder as she started making her way into the maze of cars to find Rick.

She found him fifty meters down, rummaging through a four-door sedan. "Hey," she called out as she neared him.

Rick looked up at the sound of her voice and smiled slightly. "Hey." He grabbed Caterina's switchblade from his pocket and held it out to her. "Uh, here's your switchblade. I managed to clean it off mostly, but there still might be a bit of blood on it," he explained as she took the knife from his hand.

"That's fine." Caterina tucked her switchblade back into its holster on her leg. She looked back up at Rick once it secured and watched as he went back to rummaging through the sedan. After a moment, she spoke up again. "You know that you did what you had to, right?" she said.

Rick closed the trunk and sighed. "Yeah, I know," he muttered. He turned to lean back against the sedan and crossed his arms over his chest. "Can't help but feel responsible though."

"Daryl told me that Sophia had been heading back to the interstate like you told her, but something spooked her and she veered off course." She took a step forward when Rick looked off to the side, refusing to meet her gaze. "You couldn't have known that Sophia would wander off at all like that," she stressed.

"But I left her on her own," Rick argued. "I shoulda kept with her instead of going off alone."

"You had to lead the walkers away from her," Caterina argued. "You made the right call, Rick."

Rick shuffled his feet slightly before finally looking up to look Caterina in the eye. "You think so?"

She nodded. "I do. And Carol knows it too," she said, nodding back to where the others were. "She's just upset about the situation."

"Yeah. I can't blame her for that."

"No one can." She took a step to the side and motioned for Rick to follow her. "Now, come on. Let's get back to the others. We need to rest up if we're going to go out searching for Sophia again up in the morning."

Rick nodded. "Right."

Caterina and Rick walked together back to the RV. The others had already settled in for the night, either in the RV or the cars that they had driven up there. Caterina left Rick at his family's van and started for the ladders at the back of the Winnebago. She figured that it would be best for her to sleep up there, in case anything happened. She would have a better angle that way.

"Hey, Cat?"

She stopped and looked back at Rick questioningly. "Yeah?"

"Thank you," he said gratefully.

She smiled. "Don't mention it, Rick."


	15. Chapter 14

Early the next morning, everyone gathered outside of the Winnebago to go over what they would be doing for the search. Caterina had gotten her crossbow from the RV, along with a Beretta 92fs, which she had tucked in the back of her pants. But the handgun was only for emergencies. She felt that the crossbow suited the situation more. If they were going to be out there searching for Sophia, the last thing they needed was to be drawing any walkers to them with gunshots.

Rick rolled out the tarp that Carl had found yesterday over the hood of a nearby truck. "Everybody takes a weapon," he instructed.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need," Andrea complained, as Caterina guessed she would. "What about the guns?"

"We've been over that," Shane said in exasperation. "Daryl, Cat, Rick, and I are carrying. We can't have peoples poppin' off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about," Andrea muttered.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment and a herd happens to be passin' by," Shane said in an attempt to make Andrea see reason. "See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it."

Andrea turned away, looking humbled, at least for now.

Caterina turned to Daryl. "So what's the plan?" she asked.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around, and come back down the other side," Daryl explained to everyone. "Chances are, she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."

"Stay quiet and stay sharp," Rick added. "Keep space between you, but always stay within sight of each other."

"Everybody assemble your packs," Shane ordered.

Caterina snatched up a brown backpack that someone had found in one of the cars from what she'd placed it on the ground next to her. She had already filled it with bottles of water and a few food stuffs. She hadn't been able to sleep much last night; every time she closed her eyes, she would see her family walking around as walkers. So, instead, she stayed up pretty much the entire night preparing for the search and keeping an eye out for walkers. She had managed to get a few hours of rest towards the end of the night at the least. It wasn't nearly enough to keep her going without getting tired, but she would manage. After all, she'd had to go several days without rest countless times during her tours.

"Dale, keep on those repairs," Rick told the oldest member of the group. "We've gotta get this RV ready to move."

"We won't stay here minute longer than we have to," Dale assured him. "Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back."

Rick nodded. "Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone."

"I'm going with you," Carl argued. "You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible."

Rick sighed and looked at Lori, silently asking for her opinion.

Lori shook her head. "Your call," she said. "I can't always be the bad guy."

Rick pursed his lips thoughtfully before turning to Caterina. "Cat?" he said.

Caterina looked over at the sound of her name and looked between Carl and Rick. "Well, he has all of us to watch out for him," she said as she strapped her bag onto her back. "I don't see any reason why he can't come along.'

Rick sighed, giving in. "Okay. Okay." He pointed at Carl authoritatively. "But always within our sight, no exceptions."

Carl nodded in agreement and looked up at Caterina with a grateful look in his eye. She winked at him.

As the Grimes family moved away from the RV, Caterina watched Andrea approach Dale. She exchanged looks with T-Dog, and the two moved closer to Rick's family van to give the two some space. Neither wanted to be caught in the middle of whatever argument was about to ensue between Dale and Andrea.

"Andrea, I'm begging you, don't put me in this position," Dale pleaded before Andrea could say anything.

"I'm not going out there without my gun," Andrea stated. "I'll even say please."

Dale didn't look like he was about to give in. "I'm doing this for you," he said.

"No, Dale, you're doing it for you," she snapped. "You need to stop. What d'you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger the moment you hand it to me?"

"I know you're angry at me—that much is clear. But, if I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead."

"Jenner gave us an option. I chose to stay."

"You chose suicide," Dale argued.

"So what's that to you?" Andrea shot back. "You barely know me."

"I know Amy's death devastated you."

"Keep her out of this. This is not about Amy; this is about us. And, if I decided that I had nothing left to live for, who the _hell_ are you to tell me otherwise?" she snapped, tears gathering in her eyes from what Caterina thought was a combination of her frustration and the mention of her sister. "To force my hand like that?"

Dale looked completely lost. "I saved your life," he tried feebly.

"No, Dale, I saved yours. You forced that on me. I didn't want your blood on my hands, and that is the _only_ reason I left that building. What did you expect? What, I'd have some kind of epiphany? Some life-affirming catharsis?"

"Maybe just a little gratitude?"

"Gratitude?" Andrea scoffed. "I wanted to die _my_ way, not torn apart by drooling freaks. That was _my_ choice. You took that away from me, Dale."

"But—"

"But you know better?" she interrupted. She shook her head. "All I wanted after my sister died was to get out of this endless, horrific nightmare we live every day. I wasn't hurting anyone else. You took my choice away, Dale. And you expect…gratitude?"

Dale was silent for a moment. "I don't know what to say," he muttered.

"I'm not your little girl, I'm not your wife, and I'm sure as hell not your problem. That's all there is to stay."

And, with that, Andrea walked away.

Caterina turned her gaze to the ground. She felt bad for Andrea, having to live with the vision of her sister as a walker constantly in her mind. And she agreed that she should be able to make her own decision on whether or not she continued to live. But she also saw where Dale was coming from. He just hadn't wanted to see Andrea give up on life so easily now that her sister was gone. She agreed with both of them, but she found herself leaning more towards Dale's side of the fence, which was why she had encouraged Shane to agree with Dale before. After all, Andrea might just be going through a phase of depression. She might get over it any day and be glad that Dale had saved her life like he did.

"Come on," Daryl said, his voice pulling Caterina from her thoughts.

She slid the strap of her crossbow over a shoulder and followed Daryl and Andrea off the interstate.

* * *

Caterina and Daryl ended up taking the lead as they made their way through the forest, following Rick and Sophia's trail down to the creek. She had been able to pick up on the trail quickly enough. She might not have grown up a hunter like Daryl had, but she was a good tracker. When she was younger, she had expressed an interest in wildlife, and her brother, Gabriele, had oftentimes taken her out to national parks. He taught her how to track the animals there. He also taught her how to survive in the wild, like which plants were poisonous and which were edible. He taught her how to make shelter, and how to make a fire. It was pretty much his techniques that had helped her survive so long.

"Shane, look," Caterina heard Carl say excitedly, probably showing Shane the Epic that Rick was letting him carry. "Dad said I could carry it, and mom said, as long as I was—"

"Keep it down," Shane practically snapped at him. "We're lookin' for Sophia. You need to focus on the task."

"Gotta keep up," Lori said.

"I am," Carl said gloomily.

"You okay?"

"I think Shane's mad at me. Did I do something wrong?"

"No. No, honey, I promise you," Lori assured him. "He's just…he's worried about Sophia, that's all. Come on."

Caterina glanced back at the group. She noticed that Shane was now walking further behind the others than he had been before. She wondered what had happened to him that he was acting so elusive towards Carl now. At the beginning, the two had seemed fairly close. Now, he kept brushing him off whenever he tried to talk to him.

"You good?" Daryl asked, bringing Caterina's attention away from the issue with Shane.

Caterina turned back around just in time to step over a fallen tree. "I'm fine," she said. "Just making sure the others are keeping up."

* * *

Caterina kept her eye out for anything wandering about in the trees. Every now and again, she would glance down to check for Sophia's trail, even though she didn't really need to. Daryl had pretty much on taken the lead in making sure that they went the right way. Eventually, the trail ran cold, and they were left to trust their instincts to lead them in the right direction.

After several minutes, Caterina spotted a tent through the threes, about one click away.

"Daryl," Caterina whispered. Daryl looked over at her, and she nodded towards the tent.

Daryl followed Caterina's gaze to the tent and nodded. "All right, come on," he muttered to the rest of the group.

Caterina stepped out in front of Daryl and raised her crossbow in case there were any walkers near the tent. She snuck closer, searching for any signs of life. She stopped once she was only forty-five meters away from the campsite and knelt down in the brush. She heard the others creep up behind her before stopping and kneeling down, to follow her example.

"She could be in there," Shane said.

"Could be a whole buncha things in there," Daryl said.

Caterina motioned for Daryl, Rick, and Shane to follow her as she approached the tent. She stopped once they had reached the campsite and lowered her crossbow. She snatched her Buck knife from its holster and motioned to the men to stay where they were while she went in. She slowly made her way over to the tent, stopping only to put her crossbow down by a fire pit. She tried to peek in through a small opening on the side of the tent and see inside, but it only allowed her a small field of vision, not enough for her to be able to see if there was anyone or anything inside. She looked back at the others and mouthed for them to get Carol.

"Carol," Rick whispered, motioning for Carol to join him.

Carol hurried forward while Caterina positioned herself in front of the tent, one hand reaching out for the tent door.

"Call out softly," he instructed. "If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

"Sophia?" Carol called just loudly enough that whatever was in the tent would be able to hear her. "Sweetie? Are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia, we're all here, baby. It's mommy."

When no sound came from inside the tent, Caterina looked back over her shoulder at Rick and shook her head. As he and Daryl made to cover her flank, she reached out and slowly unzipped the door. Still, there was no sound—she didn't know whether that was a good or a bad sign. She counted to three in her head and ripped the door back, only to be hit by the strong scent of death. She coughed at the suddenness of the smell and brought the back of her hand up to her nose in an attempt to block it out. It only took her a moment to get used to it, and she pulled the door open further and stepped into the tent. She could hear the others gagging outside as she moved around a man's corpse sitting in a folding chair to see if it was a walker. When she saw the bullet hole in the top of his head, she relaxed.

"Cat?" Carol called hesitantly.

Caterina opened her mouth to answer, but she paused when she noticed the revolver in the corpse's hand. She took it and stepped back out of the tent. Once she was outside, she instantly met Carol's gaze. "It isn't her," she said. While Carol gave a relieved sob, Caterina walked over to Daryl and held out the revolver to him. "Here."

Daryl took the gun with a nod of thanks.

"What's in there?" Andrea asked.

"A man," Caterina replied as she slung the strap of her crossbow over her shoulder. "He 'opted out.'"

Caterina spun around as she picked up the clear sound of church bells in the distance. She exchanged a quick look with the men closest to her, and the four of them took off towards the sound with the rest of the group following close behind.

* * *

Caterina came to a stop once they reached a slight hill. The sound was louder, but it was echoing far too much for them to be able to pinpoint which direction it was coming from. She was pretty certain it was coming from up ahead, but she couldn't be sure. It these types of situations, it was hard to tell whether or not the sound was being echoed off of anything and made to seem like it was coming from another direction.

"What direction?" Shane asked.

"I think that way," Rick said, pointing to the West. "I'm pretty sure."

"Damn, it's hard to tell out here," Shane muttered.

"If we hear them, then maybe Sophia does too," Carol said hopefully.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others," Glenn said.

"Or signaling that they found her," Andrea added.

"She could be ringin' 'em herself," Rick said. "Come on."

They all took off after Rick.

* * *

By the time that Caterina and the others had broken through another line of trees, the bells had stopped ringing. She paused at the sight of a small graveyard laid out in front of her, with a small church in the other side of the yard. It didn't look to be the church that the sound had been coming from though. There were no bells anywhere in sight.

"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells," Shane voiced Caterina's thoughts.

Rick wiped a bit of sweat off his lip before taking off towards the church.

"Rick!" Shane called after his partner.

Caterina and Shane exchanged a look before hurrying after Rick, both hoping that this would be where Sophia was. They tore through the graveyard and across the front yard of the church until they were at the doors. Caterina ran up the stairs first and stood on the opposite side of the doors from Rick, crossbow at the ready. Rick motioned for everyone to be silent before turning to Caterina. She watched as he counted down to three. Once he'd finished, the two of them pushed open the doors simultaneously. Caterina stepped inside before Rick, her eyes instantly sweeping the building for Sophia. Her heart dropped when all that she saw were three walkers sitting at the pews.

She lowered her crossbow. She didn't need to waste any arrows with them. Instead, she stepped aside to let the others through the door.

Lori stepped up beside Caterina and handed her husband a machete,as Shane pulled one out of the pack that he was carrying. Daryl paused to hand Caterina his crossbow as Glenn gave him his hatchet. The group stood back by the doors while Rick, Shane, and Daryl swept through the church, each of them taking out one of the walkers. Caterina almost smiled when Daryl crept up behind the female walker and made kissing noises to get her attention before he swung the hatchet at her, the tip of the blade cutting in just far enough to damage a portion of the brain. Daryl practically jumped back as the corpse fell forward.

When Daryl glanced up at the others, his gaze met Caterina's, only to find that she was smirking at him. "Shut up," he grunted.

Caterina just turned her eyes from Daryl to the others, who were still hacking away at the walkers that they had taken down. It seemed that they were both in need of some release.

Once they were satisfied, Shane and Rick stopped.

"Sophia!" Rick shouted almost desperately, even though it was obvious that the girl wasn't there.

Daryl approached the front of the church, where there was a large crucifix set up there, similar to the Gero Crucifix that Caterina had learned about in college (apart from the gold cross). "Yo, J.C.," Daryl greeted the statue. "You takin' requests?"

"I'm tellin' you, it's the wrong church," Shane tried to reason with Rick. "It's got no steeples, Rick. There's no steeple."

Caterina almost jumped as the ringing of bells started up again, this time loud enough that it sounded to be coming from directly above. She zipped through the others, somehow able to make her way on through without knocking into anyone. She raced downstairs and around to the side of the church, where the sound was coming from. She slowed to a stop as she noticed a megaphone set up directly under the roof. She turned around and ran a hand through her hair in agitation. She had thought that they were close to finding Sophia, but it turned out to be just some stupid, automated system instead of a way to find her.

Glenn walked over to the fuse box and ripped out some of the wires, turning off the bells.

"A timer," Daryl panted. "It's on a timer."

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit," Carol said softly.

Caterina followed the others back over to the steps to the church, but she didn't follow them inside. Instead, she wandered into the graveyard. She felt that they all needed to be left to themselves for a while, to wrap their minds around the fact that they hadn't found Sophia yet and it was getting late. If things didn't turn around soon, they'd end up having to return to the interstate without her, leaving her to survive on her own for a second night. With how fragile Sophia was, Caterina wasn't sure that she'd be able to survive that long by herself.

* * *

Caterina ended up sitting in front of an oak tree several meters from the church, absentmindedly tearing up pieces of grass. She looked up as the others approached. She grabbed her crossbow from where she had set it up against the tree and stood up to meet them.

"Are we heading out?" Caterina asked.

"In a minute," Lori answered. "I think Shane and Rick wanna talk first."

Caterina followed Lori's gaze to where Rick and Shane were talking several feet away, talking in hushed tones.

"Cat," Shane called out after a moment. "Come over here a sec?"

She exchanged a look with Lori before walking over to Rick and Shane. "What's up?" she asked.

"It's gettin' pretty late. The others are spent. I'm thinkin' that we should send 'em back while the three of us hang around and search for Sophia. What do you think?"

Caterina nodded. "Sounds good."

"Okay," Shane said before heading over to the others, Rick and Caterina right behind him. "Y'all are gonna follow the creek bed back, okay?" he told them. "Daryl, you're in charge. Me, Rick, and Cat—we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so, just to be thorough."

Daryl glanced at Caterina. "You're splittin' us up?" he asked. "You sure?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I wanna stay too," Carl chimed in. "I'm her friend." When no one said anything, he turned to Caterina. "Cat?"

Caterina held up her hands defensively. "Hey, I stepped in last time. This one's up to your parents."

Lori looked at her two men and Caterina before she stepped up behind her son. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I will," Carl assured her.

She cupped her son's face in her hands and pulled him into her side in a hug. "When did you start growing up?"

Rick approached his family, and Lori stepped forward to meet him. She pecked him on the lips and hugged him.

"I'll be along soon enough," Rick promised.

Caterina let her gaze fall on Daryl while Rick finished up his goodbyes to his family. She saw him nod slightly and took it at his way of saying, "I'll see you later." She nodded in return.

"Here, take this," Rick said as he held out his Cold Detective Special to his wife. "Remember how to use it?" he asked.

"I'm not taking our gun and leaving you unarmed," Lori argued.

"Daryl's got a spare," Caterina spoke up.

"Yeah," Daryl said. He pulled the revolver that Caterina had given him from the back of his pants and handed it over to Lori. "Here, take it."

She nodded to Lori before following Rick over to where Shane was standing with Carl.

"Give me a minute?" Rick asked.

Caterina nodded "Sure." She followed him back to the church and sat on the stairs with Shane and Carl while he went inside. They all waited while he did whatever it was that he was doing.

It was a few minutes before she heard him walking up behind them. She stood up to allow him down the stairs.

"Get what you needed?" Shane asked.

"Guess I'll find out," Rick muttered evasively.

* * *

Caterina led the way through the forest, not really following any trail. They were searching the area near the church for any sign of Sophia. So far, they hadn't found anything, but she had a feeling that they wouldn't stop until it became too dark to see anything. They would then have to rely on Caterina's sense of direction to find their way back.

She heard branches snapping from up ahead. She stopped and held her hand out to signal for the others to do the same. Once they had stopped, she listened for a moment, trying to figure out which way the sound had come from. There was a rustling from directly ahead, and she motioned for the others to follow as she on crept towards it. She had her crossbow held ready to fire, but she lowered it when she realized what it was that had been moving around nearby. It was a buck, and a fairly young one at that, judging by the size. She stood stock still as the buck stepped out into a clearing in front of her. She glanced over at the others and smiled at the look of pure awe on their faces. Carl seemed to be the most entranced by the sight.

She looked between the buck and Carl before an idea came to her head.

"You wanna get closer?" Caterina asked in a quiet voice.

"Yeah," Carl whispered, smiling.

Caterina handed her crossbow over to Rick and held out her hand to Carl. "Come on," she urged him. Carl slipped his hand into hers, and the two of them slowly made their way towards the deer. She paused when Carl stepped on a twig, the sound drawing the buck's attention to them. It stared them down for a moment, deciding whether or not the two were a threat. After a moment, when the buck still hadn't moved, Caterina gently tugged on Carl's hand and they continued to make their way forward. Once they were close enough, she pulled Carl to a stop and knelt down next to him.

"It's beautiful," Carl breathed.

She smiled. "Yeah, it is."

Just then, a gunshot rang out, and she felt a searing pain in her arm as she was knocked backwards. But she didn't pay it any mind because, at the same moment, both Carl and the buck collapsed onto the ground. She sat up and turned to where Carl had fallen, hoping that he'd just fallen back in shock. But he hadn't. Caterina's heart plummeted as she saw a rapidly growing patch of blood on the right side of his abdomen.

"Oh shit…" Caterina muttered fearfully.

"No…" Rick gasped. "No, no, no, no!" he shouted as he ran to his son's side. Caterina moved over quickly to give him some room. He grabbed his son by his shoulder and raised him up slightly so that he could hug him close. "What do we do? Cat, what do we do?" he shouted desperately, looking at the woman at his side with a pleading look on his face.

"Just hold on," Caterina said. She leaned over to place her ear on Carl's chest, right over his heart. Another flood of dread swept through her when she didn't hear a heartbeat. That either meant that it was too slow to hear, or that there was no heartbeat. She moved back so that her cheek was positioned over Carl's mouth, and she stayed there for what seemed like hours, waiting to feel a puff of breath. Finally, there was one.

She heaved a sigh of relief and straightened up.

"What is it?" Rick asked tearfully.

"He's breathing," Caterina said, "but his heartbeat is faint."

"What does that mean?"

Caterina hesitated, reluctant to answer Rick.

"Cat, what does that mean?" he demanded.

"…It means he's losing too much blood."


	16. Chapter 15

Caterina tore across a grassy field, following Rick as he ran with Carl cradled in his arm, completely unresponsive. They'd found the man responsible for the bullet in Carl's abdomen. He apparently hadn't seen him and Caterina knelt down behind the buck when he fired. Luckily, he told them about a doctor that lived nearby, so that was where they were headed. Carl needed immediate attention, otherwise… Caterina shuddered to even think of what would happen.

"Hey! You move, shithead!" Shane barked, grabbing the man's arm and throwing him forward. "Come on, get us there!"

"How far?" Rick yelled hurriedly, slowing down so that he could turn back to the others. "How far?"

Caterina stopped to look back at the man that had shot Carl. He was a heavyset man, so he was understandably having of trouble keeping up with them. Obviously, that didn't set well with Shane, or even Rick for that matter. He was in too much of a hurry to have Carl looked at to wait for the man to catch his breath.

"Another half mile that way," the man panted. "Hershel. Talk to Hershel. He'll help your boy."

Rick took off before Otis had finished.

Caterina took a few steps after her friend, but she didn't turn away from Shane or the man. "Shane, you got him?" she asked, hesitant to leave this man to Shane alone. Not because she thought that the man was dangerous; she was more afraid of what Shane would do if he irritated any further than he already had.

"Yeah," Shane said, waving for her to follow Rick. "Go on!"

She nodded and took off after Rick. She managed to catch up with him pretty quickly, and she set her pace to match his. It was pointless to get there before him, seeing as he was the one carrying Carl.

She could see a farmhouse just about a click up ahead. She guessed that it was where this man Hershel was. Hopefully, he would have something to help Carl with. He was in critical condition, and his treatment would require a variety of tools—forceps to remove the bullets, heavy painkillers to make sure that he didn't thrash around too much, and sutures to stitch him up afterwards. It was a long shot, but maybe Hershel would have everything that they needed.

As they grew closer to the farmhouse, Caterina was able to spot a young woman on the porch. She saw her run inside only to return just seconds later with a group of people.

"Was he bit?" an elderly man with a wrinkled face and kind eyes asked as they approached the front steps of the porch.

"Shot," Rick gasped. "By your man."

"Otis?" an older woman asked in disbelief while her group jogged down the steps to meet the two strangers.

"He said find Hershel," Rick said. "Is that you?" When the old man nodded, he shifted his arms forward so that he was holding his son further out in front of him. "Help me," he begged the man. "Help my boy!"

"Get him inside," Hershel said quickly.

Rick breathed a shaky sigh of relief before Caterina gently pushed on his back, ushering him towards the door. The two followed Hershel and the young woman from before into the farmhouse. The old man was already rolling up his sleeves, getting ready to treat Carl. "Patricia, I need my full kit," he instructed the older woman as he lead Rick towards a room to the side of what looked like the sitting room. "Maggie?"

"Yeah?" the younger woman called back.

"Painkillers, coagulates—grab everything."

"Okay."

"Clean towels, sheets, alcohol," Hershel continued to list. He threw open the door to the bedroom and walked around to the other side of the bed, Rick close behind him. He threw off the covers. "In here." He stepped back to allow Rick to lay his son on the mattress. "Pillowcase," he said as he gently moved Rick out of the way so that he could unbutton Carl's shirt.

"Is he alive?" Rick asked. The shock was obviously starting to get to him.

"Pillowcase, quick!" Hershel said again, ignoring Rick for now.

Seeing that Rick wasn't about to do as he said, Caterina tossed her crossbow into a chair in the corner of the room and grabbed one of the pillows from the head of the bed. She ripped the pillowcase from the pillow before tossing the pillow back down with the others.

"Fold it. Make a pad," the old man instructed.

Caterina folded the pillowcase four times. She could already see where Hershel was going with it, so she climbed onto the empty side of the bed and reached across, pressing the pillowcase to Carl's abdomen. She leaned into her hands, putting as much pressure on the wound as she dared without worrying about causing any more damage.

Hershel turned as Patricia came up next to him with a stethoscope. He put the plugs in his ears and placed the scope over Carl's heart while pressing his fingers into Carl's neck to check for a pulse. Everyone watched tensely as he listened. After a moment, he nodded. "I've got a heartbeat. It's faint."

Patricia squeezed in between Rick and Hershel and motioned for Caterina to remove her hands. "I've got it."

Caterina nodded and pulled back, allowing Patricia to take over applying pressure to Carl's wound. She crawled back out of the bed and moved to stand by the window, wanting to give the family as much space as possible.

"Maggie, IV," Hershel instructed.

The young woman was quick to move to her father's side, but she was blocked by Rick, who was staring down at Carl with an almost blank look on his face. "We need some space," Maggie said hurriedly, finally breaking Rick from whatever spell that he was in. Rick quickly backed away, and Maggie took his place at the side of the bed, holding an IV bag. She handed the needle to her father. "Here."

Hershel took the needle and proceeded to enter it into Carl's arm. "Your name?" he asked without looking up.

"R-R-Rick…" he stuttered.

"Rick?"

"I-I'm-I'm-I'm Rick."

"Rick, we're gonna do everything we can, okay?" Hershel said in a calming voice. "You need to give us some room. _Now_," he added when Rick didn't move.

Caterina stepped forward and grabbed Rick's arm. "Come on," she muttered gently. She tugged on his arm experimentally, to see if Rick would go with her without putting up a fight. When he just took a step back with her, she continued to guide him away from the bed to stand with her by the window.

"Move!" a familiar voice yelled from outside.

Caterina looked out of the window and saw Shane and the man—Otis, apparently—running to the house. "Shane's here," she informed Rick. "Come on." She tugged on Rick's arm again, gently coaxing him into following her as she left the room. She led him back out onto the porch to meet up with Shane and Otis just as they made it across the front yard.

"He's alive?" Otis asked hopefully. "He's still alive?"

She nodded. "He's alive."

Shane and Otis sighed in relief.

Caterina watched as Rick reached up to wipe his brow with the back of his hand, which was shaking pretty badly, causing some of Carl's blood to smear across his forehead. He was almost covered it in; his hands were soaked, as was the left side of his shirt. She turned to Shane. "You got a rag?"

"Yeah," Shane said. He stepped up the porch steps to where they were standing and pulled a pink rag from one of the pockets of his bag. "Here, you got blood, man." He wiped the blood from Rick's forehead. Once he'd wiped it away, he placed the rag in Rick's hands. Rick just cupped it in his hands, apparently at a lost as of what to do. "Okay. I'll take it from you," Shane said calmly as he took back the rag. "Where is he?" he asked of Rick. When he didn't get a reply, he turned to Caterina. "Where is he?" he asked again.

"In the bedroom. Come on," she said, motioning for them to follow her. She opened the screen door and led the three men back to where Hershel was tending to Carl. As soon as she passed through the doorway, she took up her earlier place by the window while the men gathered around the bed.

"You know his blood type?" Hershel asked as soon as Rick entered. He was pressing a white hand towel to Carl's wound while Maggie and Patricia stood behind him.

"A-positive. S-Same as mine," Rick answered.

"That's fortunate. Don't wander far. I'm gonna need you." He gazed down at Carl's pale body before looking up at Otis. "What happened?" he pretty much demanded of the man.

"I was…trackin' a buck," Otis said slowly, seeming to be in shock himself. "Bullet went through it. Went clean through…"

Hershel pulled back a corner of the rag to look at the wound. "The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it didn't go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out—and I'm countin' four." He looked up at Caterina. "I take it you took a bit of the brunt too?"

Confused, Caterina followed Hershel's gaze down to her left arm. There were two decent-sized holes in her arm, each bleeding pretty profusely. She stared at them in silent shock until she remembered the searing pain that she had experienced before. She guessed that, with all of the adrenaline from what had happened to Carl, she hadn't been able to feel any sort of pain of her own.

"You were hit too?" Shane asked in surprise. He obviously hadn't noticed the wound on her arm either.

"I guess some of the fragments missed Carl and hit me," Caterina muttered.

"I'm goin' to wanna take a look at that too once I'm done here," Hershel informed her.

Caterina nodded in understanding.

Otis walked around to where Patricia was standing. "I never saw them," Otis sputtered breathlessly, seeking comfort from the woman. "Not until they were on the ground."

Patricia pulled him into her, shushing him silently.

"Lori doesn't know," Rick said after a moment.

"No…" Shane said, knowing exactly where Rick's mind was going. He stepped up next to Rick and put a comforting arm around his shoulders, trying to talk him out of whatever he was thinking.

"My wife doesn't know," Rick continued. "My wife doesn't know…" He put a hand over his face to hide the tears that had gathered in his eyes. He gave a silent sob, his shoulders shaking.

Caterina and Shane looked at each other, both of them worried for Rick and Carl.

* * *

Caterina had been kicked out of the room along with Rick and Shane while Hershel worked on Carl's injury. While the others sat to wait, Caterina paced in the sitting room, absentmindedly clutching at her injured arm. She still wasn't able to feel the pain yet, but she knew that she would be pretty soon. For now, she was still too worried about Carl. It wasn't until a few minutes ago that she realized that something was wrong. Just a few seconds after Carl had been hit, his heart slowed down. Even with the four fragments that he had been hit with, he shouldn't have lost enough blood for his body to have to compensate in order to prevent any more loss. But, since it had, it meant that there was probably some internal bleeding. They wouldn't know for sure until Hershel was able to get a better look, but she had a sinking feeling that she was right.

"Would you stop pacin' like that?" Shane asked. "You're makin' me all antsy."

Caterina looked up at Shane's voice. "Sorry…" she grumbled. She trudged back over to the other side of the room and sat down in a wooden chair on Rick's right.

"When are you gonna get that arm of yours taken care of?" he asked, staring at her bleeding arm.

She glanced down at the fragment holes in her arm. She had cleaned up some of the blood with a rag that she had gotten from Patricia before being kicked out of the room, but her arm was quickly becoming a mess again. If she didn't know any better, she would've thought that the fragments had nicked an artery in her arm as well, but this amount of bleeding was actually normal for such a wound.

"Hershel said he'd look at it after he's done with Carl," Caterina reminded Shane.

"It looks pretty painful. How are you not hurtin' right now?" he wondered.

She smiled slightly. "Adrenaline, I guess. Still hasn't worn off."

"Why did I let him come?" Rick asked suddenly. "I shoulda sent him with Lori."

"Don't," Caterina said sternly. "Don't start blaming yourself, Rick."

"She's right," Shane agreed. "You know, you start that, you'll never get that monkey off your back."

Rick ignored them. "A little girl goes missin', you look for her. Simple. You said call it, head back."

Shane shook his head. "Doesn't matter what I said."

"Carl got shot because I wouldn't cut bait," Rick went on. It didn't seem that he was hearing what either of his friends said. He was too far gone in his wallowing to really be aware of what was happening around him. "It should be me in there," he said.

Shane laughed humorlessly. "You've been there, partner. Right? And you pulled through. So will he."

"Is that why I got outta that hospital?" he asked, apparently only hearing the bit about his hospitalization back before this whole apocalypse thing started. "Found my family? For it to end here? Like this? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"Rick, stop it," Caterina almost snapped.

He ran his hand over his face. "A little girl goes missing…you look for her," he said again. "It's plain and simple."

They looked up as the door opened. "Rick," Maggie called from the doorway. "He needs blood."

Rick shot up out of his chair and followed Maggie into the room. Caterina exchanged a worried look with Shane before they both stood up and walked over to the door. Carl was crying in pain on the bed, thrashing against Hershel and Patricia's hold on him.

"You, hold him down," Hershel instructed Shane urgently.

Shane instantly went to do as Hershel said, taking Patricia's place in holding Carl's torso down so that she could ready Rick for the IV.

Caterina stood in the doorway, one arm crossed over her ribs while her free hand was pressed to her mouth in horror. She had seen so much during her days spent in war. She saw people being blown to bits; she saw heads severed by flying debris; she even saw her own leg, the flesh and muscle fibers slowly melting off her bones, had even smelled her own flesh being burnt. But seeing Hershel digging those forceps into Carl's little body, and the cries and screams that he was emitting—it was worse than anything she had seen in the war.

"Almost there," Hershel assured Carl, although Caterina doubted that he could hear him.

"Stop!" Rick shouted desperately. "You're killin' him!"

"Rick!" Hershel snapped firmly. "Do you want him to live?"

"He needs blood," Patricia said forcefully.

"Do it now!" Shane shouted at Rick.

Rick nodded silently and showed Patricia his arm again. Patricia was quick to press the needle into his arm, the tube already hooked up to the blood bag. Carl continued to writhe while Hershel tried to pull one of the fragments out of his abdomen without injuring him further. After a few more cries, Carl went limp.

"Wait, wait, wait…" Shane mumbled. He looked up at Hershel with wide, fearful eyes. "Hey…"

"He just passed out," Hershel said calmly. Now that Carl was no longer thrashing, he was able to pull the fragment out more smoothly. He sighed as he brought the fragment up so that he could examine it. "One down…" he muttered before dropping it into a petri dish on the bed next to Carl. "Three to go."

* * *

Caterina was in the sitting room with Otis and Maggie, waiting for news on Carl . Hershel hadn't been able to finish removing the bullet fragments. He was afraid that Carl would wake up again and start flailing like he'd done before. If he did, it would be harder to remove the remaining fragments. At any rate, he had lost a lot of blood already, so they had to give him a transfusion before they did any more.

Now, Hershel was reviewing Carl's vital signs. Shane and Rick were still inside the room, seeing as they'd been helping with the procedure. Caterina had been forced to leave just a few minutes into it—not because she'd been in the way, but because she couldn't bear to watch any more of it.

Caterina raised her head as the doors opened and Rick came stumbling out, Shane close behind.

She sat forward expectantly. "Well?" she pushed. "How is he?"

"He's stable for now," Shane assured her.

Caterina slumped back in her chair with a sigh of relief. "Thank God…"

"Lori has to be here, Shane," Rick said as he sat down on a chair next to the door leading into the room that his son was being kept in. "She has to know."

Shane nodded. "Okay, I get that. I'm gonna handle it. But you've gotta handle your end."

"M-My end?" he asked.

He moved closer to Rick and knelt down so that he could look his friend in the face easier. "Your end is bein' here for your son. Even if he didn't need your blood to survive, there's no way that I'd ever let you walk out of that door, man. I'd break your legs if you tried. I mean, you know that, right?"

Rick lowered his head into his hands, knowing that Shane was right. He couldn't just leave his son there injured.

"If sumthin' happened to him and you weren't here…" Shane paused, obviously having trouble saying whatever it was that he wanted to say. "If…if he slipped away while you were gone, you would never forgive yourself for that. And neither would Lori, man."

Rick kept his face in his hands for a moment before sitting upright. "You're right."

"When was I ever wrong?" Shane laughed softly, earning a slight smile from Rick. "You know, when…when you were in that hospital, the one you were never supposed to leave…" He sighed. "Man, you shoulda seen Lori. She was like… The strength of that woman…you can't even imagine it." He shuffled forward a bit more and placed his hand on Rick's shoulder. "See, that's what you've gotta have now. I mean, Carl—he _needs_ that from you. So you wire yourself tight, my friend. You hear me?" He grabbed the side of Rick's face and pressed his forehead to his. "You've got the hard part. You just leave the rest to me, okay?"

Rick nodded. "All right."

"All right."

Shane jumped away from Rick as the bedroom opened again. Everyone looked up and got to their feet in anticipation when they saw that it was Hershel standing there.

"He's out of danger for the moment, but I need to remove those remainin' fragments," Hershel told Rick.

"How?" Rick asked. "You saw how he was."

"I know, and that was the shallowest one. I need to go deeper to get the others."

"Oh man…" Shane sighed. He did not like where this was going.

"There's more," Hershel said.

Caterina's stomach dropped. She didn't need to hear it to know that she'd been right in her thoughts before. One of his arteries had been hit.

"Tell me," Rick urged the old man.

"His belly's distended, his pressure's droppin'—which means there's internal bleeding," Hershel explained. "A fragment must have nicked one of his blood vessels."

Rick nodded in understanding, somehow able to keep himself from breaking at the news. Caterina was sure that, if it were her son, she would have broken down already. But she supposed that was always the mother's job. The fathers were meant to be strong, to keep the family going whenever bad news befell them.

"I have to open him up, find the bleeder, and stitch it," Hershel continued. "And he can't move while I'm in there—I mean, at all. If he reacts the same as before, I'll sever an artery and he'll be dead in minutes. To even try this, I have to put him under. But, if I do, he won't be able to breathe on his own. Same bad results."

"What'll it take?" Rick asked.

"You need a respirator," Otis chimed in. "What else?"

"The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures…" Hershel listed off.

"If you had all that, you could save him?" Rick questioned.

"If I had all that, I could try," he replied evasively. He obviously didn't want to give Rick any false hopes, but he seemed confident enough that he would be successful.

"Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago," Otis reminded the old man. He paused before breathing in realization, "The high school…"

Hershel nodded. "That's what I was thinkin'." He turned to Rick. "They set up a FEMA shelter there. They'd have everything we need."

"The place was overrun the last time I saw it. You couldn't get near it. Maybe it's better now," he said hopefully.

"Well, I said leave the rest to me," Shane said. "Is it too late to take that back?"

Caterina smiled slightly at his attempt at a joke.

"I hate you goin' alone," Rick sighed.

"I'll go with him," Caterina volunteered.

"No," Shane said, immediately shooting her down. "You're already wounded. It'll make it harder for us to get around." He shook his head. "No, I want you to stay here with Rick in case sumthin' happens."

Caterina hesitated, but she ended up nodding her consent. It didn't set right with her, letting Shane go of on his own to get this stuff, especially if there was a possibility that the high school was overrun. But her wound could potentially become a problem on a run like that, and Rick _did_ need her more than Shane needed her.

"Doc, why don't you do me a list and draw me a map?" Shane said.

"You won't need a map," Otis replied. "I'll take you there. Ain't but five miles."

"Otis, no," Patricia argued firmly.

"Honey, we don't have time for guesswork, and _I'm_ responsible. I ain't gonna sit here while this fella takes this on alone," he said, nodding to Rick. His wife didn't say anything; she just looked at him in worry. "I'll be all right," he tried to assure her. Honestly, Caterina didn't think that he was too assured himself. But he seemed to want to right his mistake.

"Are you sure about this?" Shane asked.

"Do you even know what any of the stuff he's talkin' about looks like?" Otis retorted.

"Come to think, no."

"I've been a volunteer EMT. I do. We can talk about this till next Sunday, or we could just go do it real quick."

Shane nodded. "I'll take real quick."

"I should thank you," Rick said.

"Wait till that boy of yours is up and around," Otis said. "Then we'll talk. I'll gather some things," he said before walking off.

Maggie stepped up next to Caterina. "Where is she?" she asked Rick. "Your wife?"

"She should still be with the others, somewhere northeast of here," Caterina answered in Rick's place. "If you head up towards the highway, you should be able to find them. There will be five of them—two males, two females."

"All right. I'll go find your wife and bring her back here."

"Thank you," Rick said earnestly.

* * *

Once Otis had gathered up everything that they would need for their run, everyone gathered outside to see him and Shane off. Patricia went straight up to Otis and hugged him, sobbing into his chest. Otis returned the embrace with a somewhat hesitant look on his face. Caterina really admired his courage and determination. Not many people would risk their own life for someone else, even a child's, especially not in circumstances like this. Most would just give their condolences and move on. But not Otis. He was a good man, through and through.

"Just get what you need and get out of there," Rick instructed his best friend.

"I will," Shane assured him. "You stay strong, all right?"

"All right."

Rick approached the couple warily and held out his Colt Python. Otis pulled away from his wife slightly and looked down at the gun. He glanced up at Hershel, whom Caterina noticed had an uncomfortable look on his face, before taking the Python from Rick's grasp. "That's a fine weapon, Rick. I'll bring it back in good shape," he promised.

Shane turned to where Caterina stood behind him. "Got any advice for us?"

Caterina crossed her arms thoughtfully. "Well, if the place is overrun, you're going to have to find a way through without being seen. Find a way to distract them so you can get past to wherever you need to go. Once inside, you either lock the door or block it with something to keep anything from getting in. Grab whatever you need and make sure that it's secure before you try and leave. If you can't go out the same way that you came in, you'll have to find another route. But make sure it's through somewhere you're sure is clear, otherwise you might get taken by surprise. If something goes wrong and you get cornered, try to get to higher ground, take out as many as you can. If you manage to clear a path, you make a run for somewhere secure and hide out there until it's safe."

He nodded slightly. "All right. I think I can remember all that."

She smirked. "You're the one who asked."

"You been in situations like this before?" Otis asked curiously.

"Sort of."

"She's military," Shane explained.

"Oh," Otis muttered in surprise.

Caterina shrugged. "It was a family thing."

Shane slapped his hand down on the side of the truck bed. "Come on, let's go," he said.

"Right," Otis said. He reached into the bed and grabbed his Remington 700 BDL, the same gun that fired the bullet that fragmented and hit Carl and Caterina. He looked back at his wife one last time before climbing into the driver's seat while Shane took the passenger side.

Everyone watched as the two men drove off.

* * *

Caterina was sitting outside on the front porch, slouching in one of the two chairs that the Green family kept out there. She had left her crossbow in the living room, after having taken it out of Carl's temporary room. So far, she hadn't seen any signs of walkers anywhere near the farmhouse, so she figured that she'd be all right with just her gun and knives.

She sat staring out at the field. It had been a long time since she'd been able to just sit down and watch nature. The last time had been back before her last tour. She'd spent her entire medical leave with Gabriele and Alison in Alabama. The view from their front porch was very similar to the one before her now, except much greener.

Caterina looked up as the screen door opened.

"Hey," Rick greeted her. "I was wonderin' where you'd gone off to." He walked out onto the porch and settled back against one of the beams across from Caterina. "What're you doin' out here?"

"Enjoying the view," Caterina replied. "It's been a long time since I have been able to sit somewhere and admire everything."

"I take it you're a nature person?"

She smiled slightly. "I guess you could say that."

The two friends turned their gazes on the scene in front of them, just enjoying the rare calm that the area seemed to bring. It was always pretty hot in Georgia, at least from what Caterina had observed, but they were safe from the sun's rays underneath the roof of the porch, leaving them free to enjoy the cool breeze.

"How's your arm?" Rick asked after a moment, breaking the silence.

Caterina glanced down at her injured arm. Hershel still hadn't been able to look at it . He was constantly having to check on Carl, to make sure that his levels stayed where he wanted them to be. Whenever he wasn't doing that, he was either taking a liter of blood from Rick or getting everything ready for when Shane and Otis got back. So, apart from the occasional rag that she got from Patricia to wipe away the blood, in order to keep it from hardening over the wound, her arm had been left untreated. And the adrenaline had finally started to fade, so she could feel it now. It felt like she was being stabbed repeatedly in the arm. But she was sure that it was nothing compared to the pain that Carl had been going through when he woke up before.

"It's fine," Caterina finally answered. "I'm starting to feel it now though."

"I'm sorry…" Rick said, looking down guiltily. He felt terrible that they were all so focused on Carl, ignoring Caterina's wounds. He was sure that she understood why they were worried more about his son, but he still felt bad about it. Her health was just as important as Carl's, at least in his eyes.

"There's no need to be sorry, Rick," she assured him. "Your son takes precedence."

"It doesn't hurt too badly, does it?" he asked hopefully, although he knew from experience that bullet wounds hurt more than almost anything.

Caterina sighed lightly. "Well, I won't lie, it hurts like hell." She smiled. "But I've had much worse."

Rick crossed his arms over his chest. "That's right. You got a purple heart, didn't you? I saw you give it to Andrea. What was it for?"

She hesitated, contemplating on whether or not she should show Rick her leg. She didn't really like for people to see it, especially not anyone that she cared about. She didn't want them feeling sorry for her. Still, why not show him? Daryl had already seen it, and he wasn't treating her any differently. Why not let Rick see too?

She leaned down and rolled up her pant leg, revealing the scars that she'd gotten from Iraq.

Rick took a sharp breath at the sight of it. "Jesus…" he breathed. He knelt down so that he could get a closer look at them. "When did this happen?"

"Two years ago." She rolled the pant leg back down before Rick could reach out to touch the scars, as she could tell that he wanted to do. "I was standing a bit too close to a land mine when it went off. Ended up almost losing my leg."

"Thank God you didn't."

Caterina smiled slightly. "Yeah…thank God."

The door opened again, gaining the two friends' attention. Rick stood up and returned to his place by the railings as Hershel walked out onto the porch to join them.

"Afternoon," the old man greeted them.

"Hey, Hershel," Rick replied. "This place is beautiful."

"Been in my family one hundred sixty years," he stated proudly.

"I can't believe how serene it is," Caterina chimed in. "It's practically untouched."

"We weren't completely unscathed. We lost friends, neighbors. The epidemic took my wife, my step-son."

"I'm sorry," Rick said sincerely.

"My daughters were spared. I'm grateful to God for that." He looked at Rick. "These people here? All we have got left is each other. Just hopin' we can ride it out in peace till there's a cure."

Caterina exchanged a look with Rick, both of them hesitant to tell Hershel about what they had experienced.

"We were at the CDC. It's gone now," Rick decided to say. "There is no cure."

"I don't believe it," Hershel said, smiling with that smile that men who had seen so much during the course of their lives could wear. "When AIDS came along, everyone panicked. One boy in town came down with it and some parents pulled their children from school so they didn't have to sit in the same room."

"This is a whole other thing."

"That's what we always say—'this one's different.'"

"Well, this one is," Rick stated.

"Mankind's been fightin' plagues from the start. We get our behinds kicked for a while, then we bounce back. It's nature correctin' herself, restorin' some balance."

Rick sighed. "I wish I could believe that."

Caterina looked out towards the field and saw who she guessed to be Maggie riding back up to the house. She got up from the chair and walked forward to stand between Rick and Hershel. "Rick," she said, gaining his attention. She nodded out to where Maggie was. She could just see who she guessed was Lori clinging to her from the back of the saddle.

Rick followed Caterina's gaze out to the field.

He waited until Maggie and Lori had passed through the fence before he went out to meet them. Lori leapt down as soon as Maggie pulled the horse to a stop, tears already gathered in her eyes. As soon as she saw the blood soaked on his shirt, she burst into tears. Rick hurried forward and pulled her into his chest. She latched onto Rick and cried into his neck for a moment before the two hurried up into the house.

Caterina exchanged sympathetic looks with Hershel before the two of them followed the couple inside.

* * *

Caterina stood in the back corner of the room, her arms crossed. Hershel had been in to explain what it was that was going on to Lori, and now Rick was giving his second transfusion. She noticed that he was starting to become paler in the face, and bags had started to form around his eyes. She wondered how many transfusions he had left in him before he was forced to tap out.

Once Patricia had his arm wrapped up, Rick started to stand. Lori turned to him quickly and placed her hand on his arm just as he stumbled to the side. "Slow," she instructed him. "Slow."

Rick collapsed back into the chair with a groan.

"How many transfusions?" Lori asked.

"Two," Rick answered. "Only two."

"He wanted to do the same for you when you were in the hospital," Lori said, a fond smile on her lips. "I had to talk him out of it."

Caterina pushed off the wall as a short silence fell over the room. "You're starting to look a bit pale," she pointed out to Rick. "Maybe you should see if Hershel's got any orange juice."

"Cat's right," Lori agreed. She stood up from the bed and held her hand out to Rick. "Come on."

Rick took his wife's hand and allowed her to help him onto his feet. Once he was standing, Lori took his arm and started to lead him out of the room. Caterina followed close behind the Grimes, just in case Rick started to fall and Lori wasn't strong enough to catch him.

"How's your arm, by the way?" Lori asked over her shoulder. "Hershel said you got hit too, but he hasn't had a chance to look at it."

"It's fine," Caterina assured her. "I don't think the fragments hit anything vital."

She followed Lori and Rick in the kitchen, where Hershel was already waiting for them with a tall glass of orange juice. He handed it to Rick, who took it with a quiet thanks. He took a small sip, but this didn't satisfy Hershel, and he motioned for Rick to keep drinking. Rick did so obediently, trying to down as much as he could. His stomach would probably only hold so much, especially since their group hadn't eaten in a while.

Lori leaned on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. "Okay so, I understand, when Shane gets back with this other man…"

"Otis," Hershel provided.

"Otis," she repeated contemptuously. "The idiot who shot my son. And Cat."

"It was an accident, Lori," Caterina reminded her.

"I'll take that under advisement later. For now, he's the idiot who shot you and my son."

"Lori, they're doin' everythin' they can to make it right," Rick tried to soothe her as he grabbed one of her hands.

Lori ignored this, choosing instead to return to her conversation with Hershel. "Okay, as soon as they get back, you can perform this surgery?" she asked.

"I'll certainly do my best," Hershel answered evasively.

She nodded. "Okay. And you've done this procedure before?"

"Well, yes, in a sense."

"In a sense?" she parroted dubiously.

"Honey, we don't have the luxury of shoppin' for a surgeon," Rick said.

Lori patted Rick's hand. "No, I understand that. But, I mean, you're a doctor, right?"

"Yes, ma'am," Hershel replied calmly. "Of course. A vet."

"A veteran?" she asked hopefully. "A combat medic?"

Hershel hesitated. "A veterinarian."

Caterina raised an eyebrow at that. Well, Hershel was pretty impressive for a veterinarian if he could flip so quickly to working on humans. Not many could do the same. Although, she guessed that all veterinarians had to learn about human anatomy before they moved on to animals. In actuality, all veterinarians had the qualifications to work on humans; they just lacked the experience.

"And you've done this surgery before on what?" Lori continued to question him. "Cows? Pigs?"

"I-I have to sit down," Rick muttered. He pulled out one of the kitchen chairs just before his legs gave out on him, and he collapsed into it, knocking over the glass of orange juice in the process. Caterina and Lori both hurried forward and caught him before he could fall off the side of the chair.

Once they had straightened Rick back up, Lori looked up at Hershel. "You're completely in over your head, aren't you?"

"Ma'am, aren't we all?" Hershel answered truthfully.

* * *

It was dark now. Shane and Otis still hadn't returned from their trip, and it was obvious that Carl didn't have much longer. Although a doctor she was not, Caterina had seen enough injuries to know whenever someone was starting to take a turn for the worse, and Carl was certainly closing in on that point. But instead of accepting her assumptions as facts, she stood at the back of the bedroom and waited as Hershel checked Carl's vital signs again. Lori and Rick stood next to the bed, staring down at their son.

As the air was released from the blood pressure monitor, Hershel removed the plugs of his stethoscope from his ears. "Pressure's droppin' again," he informed the waiting couple. "We can't wait much longer."

"Take some more," Rick said, offering his arm. "Whatever he needs. Then I'm gonna go."

"Go? Go where?" Lori asked.

"He said five miles," he replied. "They should be long back by now. Sumthin's gone wrong."

"Are you insane? You're not going after them."

"Rick, listen to your wife," Hershel tried to reason with him.

"If they got into trouble—" Rick started to argue.

"You're in no condition to anythin' about it," he reminded him. "You've given too much blood. You're barely on your feet. You wouldn't make it across the yard."

"If sumthin' happened, I have to go," Rick continued to try to convince his wife.

"No, your place is here," Lori said sternly. "If Shane said he'll be back, he'll be back."

"Lori's right," Caterina jumped in. "Otis said the high school was overrun the last time he was there. If it still is, they're having to maneuver their way around in order to get everything they need and get back. It could take while, but they'll be back."

"I can't just sit here," Rick argued.

"That is exactly what you do!" Lori snapped. "If you need to pray or cry or tell God he's cruel, you go right ahead, but you're not leaving, Rick. Carl needs you—here. And I can't do this by myself. Not this one. I can't."

Rick stared at her for a moment before nodding.


	17. Chapter 16

**Author's Note**

Uuuugh, I just can't seem to get this portion right. I've rewritten it countless times, but it never seems to come out right. But I'm posting it regardless, because I want to move ahead in this story as much as I can before Thanksgiving break. I'll be away from my computer for a week, so I probably won't be able to write any :/.

Anyway, I hope you guys are still enjoying the story!

* * *

_Caterina was sitting in a wheelchair on the porch of her brother's house. The doctors had given it to her to keep her off of her feet as much as possible. It'd been a little over two weeks since the accident, when she almost lost her leg in that explosion, and only three days since she had been allowed to leave the hospital. While she was already able to hold her own weight and was even beginning to walk again, the doctors were convinced that she should take it slow. She was only allowed to walk for two minutes once every day. Apart from that, she was condemned to that wheelchair, only able to do exercises to keep the skin on her leg from tightening too much._

_"Cat?" Gabriele's voice called out. "Cat, where are you?"_

_She looked over as the front door opened._

_Gabriele walked out onto the porch and sighed in relief when he saw Caterina sitting a few feet away. "There you are. I was wondering where you had wandered off to." He walked over to his sister. "What are you doing out here, sorella?" he asked._

_"The view from my room is starting to get a bit tiresome," Caterina replied._

_Gabriele nodded. "Si, I can understand that. May I?" he asked, motioning to one of the rocking chairs that his girlfriend kept on the porch._

_"They're your chairs," she mumbled._

_He just smiled patiently and sat down. "How is your leg?"_

_Caterina reached down subconsciously to rub at her bandaged leg. The skin had already pretty much healed from the burns, but it was still bright red and crinkled, and there were a few chunks of skin missing. The doctors said that, once her burns completely healed, they would be able to replace the missing skin. Until that time, her leg would continue to look like Swiss cheese. Well, maybe not Swiss cheese. But it would look like a piranha had gotten ahold of it._

_"It's fine," she assured him. "It was a bit sore this morning, but it's better now."_

_"Buono," Gabriele said. "Have you applied your noon ointment?"_

_Caterina rolled her eyes. "No, madre, not yet. It just turned twelve."_

_He gripped the arms of the rocking chair and raised himself halfway out of his seat. "Shall I go get it for you then?" he offered kindly._

_"Why even bother asking if you're just going to do it anyway?" she scoffed._

_Gabriele smiled good-naturedly, despite his sister's irritable tone. "That is a good point, piccina." He stood up. "I will be right back," he promised before disappearing into the house._

_Caterina slumped back in her wheelchair with a heavy sigh. Ever since she had left the hospital, her brother had taken it upon himself to act like her nurse. He would remind her every day to take her antibiotics and apply her ointments, take her two minute walk and do all her exercises. While she appreciated how much he cared about her, it was starting to grate on her nerves. He was like a mother hen. Caterina already had one overprotective mother; she didn't need two._

_She sat up as she heard the sound of glass breaking from inside the house._

_"Gabriele?" she called out cautiously. "Are you okay?"_

_There was no response._

_She opened the screen door and cautiously wheeled herself inside. Another crash sounded from the kitchen, causing her to jump in her chair. Being the cautious military woman that she was, she paused to grab the letter opener from the table next to the door. It was shaped like a knife, so it made a good makeshift weapon._

_Gripping the letter opener tightly in her hand, Caterina wheeled herself into the kitchen._

_She gave a sigh of relief when she saw Gabriele standing at the counter, his back turned towards her. "Jesus, you scared the crap out of me." She placed the letter opener in her lap and rolled a bit further into the kitchen. "Did you drop something? I heard a crash."_

_Still, Gabriele didn't reply._

_This worried Caterina, and she called out to him warily. "Gabriele?" She moved herself further a few more inches, pausing as Gabriele shifted where he stood. Slowly, he turned to face her, a guttural growl emitting from his throat. Caterina's heart skipped as she caught sight of his face. His eyes were dull and glazed over, and his skin was deathly pale. "No!" she screamed in anguish as Gabriele stumbled towards her._

* * *

Caterina jerked awake with a gasp. She looked around the room wildly, as if searching for her brother. For a moment, she expected him to come staggering around the corner, his skin peeled and decayed, fresh blood dripping from his mouth.

She relaxed as her mind finally grasped that it had been a dream. She fell back into the armchair with a sigh, wondering why she had even been asleep. She didn't remember falling asleep. She remembered that she had decided to leave Rick and Lori to themselves for a while and had gone out into the sitting room to rest. She guessed that she'd fallen asleep soon after, because that was the last thing that she remembered. It had been over twenty-four hours since the last time that she slept. Usually, that wouldn't have been much of a problem but, since she'd been running around so much during that twenty-four hours and had even gotten shot, her body was drained. She had known it would only be a matter of time before she crashed, and apparently she had.

"Carl?" Rick's voice spoke from the back room.

Caterina looked towards the room that Carl was in. It took her a moment to register the worry in Rick's voice but, once she did, she shot onto her feet and hurried over to the bedroom. She reached the doorway just in time to see Carl start tossing on the bed uncontrollably. She instantly recognized it as a seizure. She had seen Alison go through them more times than she cared to count. She had epilepsy, so she'd had seizures quite often.

"Don't," Hershel warned as Lori moved to grab her son. "It's a seizure. If you hold him down, he could hurt himself."

"You can't stop it?" Lori demanded desperately.

"He has to just go through it."

Caterina watched from the doorway as Carl continued to writhe. Her heart went out to Lori and Rick as they were forced to watch. Obviously, they hadn't experienced someone having a seizure before. It had been scary for her the first time that she'd seen Alison have one; she could only imagine how terrifying it was for Lori and Rick to see their son's.

Once the seizure had stopped, Hershel opened Carl's eyes so he could take a look at his pupils. "His brain isn't getting enough blood," he stated as he saw that Carl's pupils were dilated. "His pressure's bottomin'. He needs another transfusion."

"Okay, I'm ready," Rick said.

"If I take any more from you, your body could shut down," Hershel argued. "You could go into a coma, or cardiac arrest."

"You can use my blood," Caterina spoke up, bringing everyone's attention to her.

"Cat, no," Rick said. "You've already lost a lot of blood from your arm."

"That may be, but I haven't lost nearly as much as you've had drained out of you," she shot back. She looked up at Hershel determinedly. "You can use mine."

"What's your blood type?" Hershel inquired.

"O-positive."

He nodded. "A universal donor. Good." He motioned for Caterina to come into the room. "Come here, have a seat."

Caterina went around the bed to sit down in the chair that had been set up for Rick when he'd been giving transfusions. She placed her arm on the bed next to Carl, her palm up, and waited as Hershel got everything ready for the transfusion.

"Cat, you don't have to do this," Rick tried again.

"Yeah, and what's the alternative?" Caterina replied harshly. "I don't think Carl would be too happy if he woke up to learn that you'd fallen into a coma or died from cardiac arrest because you were stupid enough to make Hershel take another liter of your blood instead of letting him use mine. Do you?"

Rick stared at Caterina in shock at her tone. She had never raised her voice at him like that. In fact, she never raised her voice against anyone, apart from Daryl during those times when his anger got the best of him. Caterina was always so calm, even in situation where others would've snapped, even when she was attacked in that alley in Atlanta. She didn't even raise her voice when Shane almost shot her back at the CDC.

"No…" he relented finally.

Caterina nodded in satisfaction and turned her gaze back on Hershel. She saw that he was sterilizing the needle for the IV, and she struggle not to fidget at the sight of it. She _really_ didn't like needles.

"Thank you," Lori said gratefully.

"Don't mention it," Caterina muttered feebly.

Hershel sat down on the bed opposite Caterina and grasped her arm. "I'm gonna wrap your arm first," he explained as he grabbed a roll of bandages from the bedside table. "Try to keep you from losin' too much blood during the transfusion." He wound the bandage around her upper bicep just tight enough to lessen the blood flow to that area. Once he was finished, he reached around for the needle that he'd just cleaned. "All right. Now…"

She tensed as Hershel brought the needle up to her arm. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down, even if just the slightest bit. She glanced up at Lori and Rick when she felt their eyes on her. The two were staring at her in concern and she tried to give a small smile, but it ended up as a grimace.

"There," Hershel said once the needle was in. "Now, that's gonna have to stay in there for a while."

Caterina nodded in understanding. "Right…" She settled back into the chair, careful not to disturb the needle.

* * *

The transfusion ended up taking more out of Caterina than she thought it would. Hershel had to take a bit more blood to make up for how long it had been since Carl's last transfusion. She didn't argue against him; she wanted to make sure that Carl made it until Shane and Otis got back. But, once Hershel was done, she started to feel the effects instantly, thanks to all of the blood that she had lost beforehand. She was exhausted, even though she had rested not too long ago, and Rick had to help her out of the chair. Her legs felt like jelly, and it was hard for her to support herself. She had to lean on Rick as he helped her back out into the sitting area.

"Are you sure you don't want to just stay in here?" Lori asked as she followed them out of the bedroom.

"I'm sure," Caterina replied. "The two of you need your time with Carl." She pulled her arm from Rick and dropped down into the armchair that she'd slept in earlier. "Besides, Shane and Otis should be back soon with the supplies. I'm not going to be wanted in there once they do."

"Okay. Thank you again."

Caterina smiled slightly. "No problem."

"Try and get some rest, all right?" Rick almost demanded.

"Yes, madre," she chuckled.

Rick smiled before turning to his wife. Caterina watched as he and Lori returned to the bedroom. As soon as they were out of sight, Caterina allowed the smile to drop from her lips. She lounged further back into the chair until her neck was being cushioned and closed her eyes. It felt like only seconds before she was pulled into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

* * *

Caterina was woken again half an hour later by someone shaking her by the shoulder.

"Cat," Rick spoke from somewhere beside her. "Cat, wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open at the voice's command only to meet Rick's blue-eyed gaze as soon as they were open. It took Caterina a moment to recognize him, kneeling at her side with his hand upon her shoulder. But, once she did, she cleared her throat as she sat up straighter, causing Rick's hand to fall from her shoulder. "What's going on?" she grunted sleepily.

"Shane still isn't back with the supplies, and Carl's runnin' out of time," Rick explained. "We're gonna have to do it now."

She stared at Rick blankly, her sluggish mind slow to absorb what he had said. After a moment of deciphering the meaning behind his words, she sat up more urgently, now wide awake. "Can I do anything to help?" she asked.

"I'm not sure yet. I just figured you'd want to be awake for this."

"Yeah, of course." She stood up and followed Rick back into the bedroom. She was still feeling a little tired from the transfusion, and her arm was throbbing, but she couldn't focus on that. There were more important things happening.

The two of them joined Lori at Carl's bedside, and they watched as Hershel and Patricia came rolling a silver operation table into the room.

"Okay, get the corner of that bed," Hershel instructed as he gathered up one edge of the bed sheets. "Let's get the sheets down, everybody." He pointed to the IV next to the bed. "Get the IV bag on the sheet."

Caterina grabbed the IV bag and placed it on the bed before reaching past Rick and sliding her arm under Carl's head so that she could pull away the pillow to lay him out flat. She handed the pillow to Rick, and he threw it onto the other side of the bed to get it out of the way. Caterina laid Carl back down on the mattress gently and grabbed the upper left corner of the bedsheet.

"On three. One, two, three."

She lifted her corner while the others did the same. She grimaced as her arm gave a particularly painful throb from the added weight, but she ignored it as she helped to transfer Carl to the operating table. She winced at the loud _thud!_ that came from lowering Carl onto the table. Her arm hadn't been strong enough to allow her to lower him as gently as she would've liked.

Caterina stepped off to the side to give Hershel and Patricia some room, clutching at her arm.

She and the Grimes couple watched as the two readied everything for the operation. Hershel got all of his tools in order while Patricia grabbed a lamp from the bedside table and walked it over to the table. She took the shade off and turned on the second bulb to give Hershel some more light.

Hershel slipped on a pair of latex gloves as he looked up at the three standing by the dresser. "You all might want to step out," he warned.

Before anyone could decide to leave, Caterina heard the sound of a truck approaching the house. "Wait," she called. She hurried over to the window at the front of the room and pulled back the lace curtain to see into the yard. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Otis' truck tearing into the front yard. "They're back," she gasped.

"Oh God…" Rick breathed before running out of the room, Caterina and Lori right behind him.

"What's going on?" Glenn asked from the kitchen when he saw everyone running towards the front door.

"Shane's back with the supplies!" Caterina called back.

The three in the kitchen hurried to join them as they walked out onto the porch. Caterina stepped off to the side to wait on the porch with Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog while the others went out to the yard to meet Shane, who was limping up towards the house with two bags hanging off of his shoulders. Caterina glanced around the yard for any signs of Otis. When she didn't see him anywhere, her stomach fell.

"Carl?" Shane asked breathlessly.

"There's still a chance," Rick assured him.

Hershel snatched one of the bags from Shane and turned to go inside, but he stopped before he took one step towards the house. "Otis?" he asked.

"No," Shane said faintly.

The old man was silent for a moment as he struggled to wrap his mind around what Shane was trying to tell him. "We say nothing to Patricia," he said to the others. "Not until after. I need her."

With that, he walked into the house with the bag of surgical supplies.

Shane looked around at everyone, completely lost. He was obviously in shock from whatever had gone down up at the high school, from what had happened to Otis. Rick stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Shane in an attempt to soothe him, like he had done to him when he'd been beating himself up a bout Carl. Shane returned the embrace weakly, staring wide-eyed over Rick's shoulder. After a moment, Rick pulled away and placed his hand on Shane's face, silently urging him to talk.

"They kept blockin' us…at every turn," Shane almost whispered. "We had nothin' left. We were down to our last ten rounds. Then he said—he said he'd cover me, and that I should keep goin'. So that's what I did. I just…I kept goin', but…I looked back and he…" He stopped as he choked on the tears that he was holding back. "I tried," he gasped.

Rick gripped his shoulder. "He wanted to make it right," he said in an attempt to ease Shane's guilt.

Shane nodded and ran his hand over his mouth, looking almost crazed.

* * *

After everyone had settled down about Otis, they had made themselves comfortable outside while they waited for news on Carl. Caterina sat out in the yard with Rick and Lori. She plucked at the grass like she'd done back at the graveyard, tearing it to pieces while she waited anxiously for Hershel to finish up the surgery. She was so uneasy that even her arm had dulled to the point that she could barely feel it.

Her head snapped up as the screen door opened, and Hershel stepped out onto the porch along with Glenn and Maggie. Caterina scrambled onto her feet in sync with the Grimes and waited.

"He seems to have stabilized," Hershel said.

"Oh God," Rick said in relief.

Caterina let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. It felt like a huge weight had just been lifted from her shoulders now that she knew Carl was going to be okay. And there had been. She'd seen so much death in her lifetime, probably more than one person should see. She had seen friends and family die; she had seen people get gunned down and ripped apart. There were so many deaths imprinted in her mind. She didn't know if she would've been able to handle adding Carl's death to that long list.

Rick walked up the steps and hugged Hershel gratefully.

"I don't have words," Lori sobbed happily.

"I don't either," Hershel said. "Wish I did. How do I tell Patricia about Otis?"

The smile fell from Lori's face.

"You go to Carl," Rick offered. "I'll go with Hershel."

Hershel nodded in thanks and stepped back into the house with Rick, Maggie, and Glenn right behind him. Lori stayed where she was standing. She looked over at Shane, where he was sitting on the front bumper of Otis' truck, and nodded to him before she went inside. Shane hesitated before he limped in after her.

Once everyone but T-Dog had gone inside, Caterina walked over to the porch and sat down on the top step. She dropped her head between her legs and clasped her hands together at the base of her skull. Now that the situation with Carl was over, she was free to mourn Otis' death. It might seem hypocritical that she was able to accept his death while she wouldn't have been able to accept Carl's, but it was just the simple fact that she _knew_ Carl. She had only met Otis a few hours ago, and it hadn't exactly been a happy meeting. Still, she knew that Otis was a good man, and she made it a point to mourn the loss of every good man in the world, regardless of whether she knew them or not.

"Man, this day has been crazy," T-Dog sighed.

"Tell me about it," Caterina muttered. She raised her head and shifted so that she was leaning forward, using her arms to keep herself propped up. She looked over her shoulder at where T-Dog sat. "How's your arm?" she asked.

"Better, now it's been stitched up. Man, that was a bitch."

She chuckled. "Yeah, I bet."

They looked back at the door as Hershel stepped outside again.

"You ready to get that arm of yours taken care of?" the old man asked of Caterina.

"Sure," she replied. She pushed herself up onto her feet and went to follow Hershel inside. "Wish me luck," she muttered to T-Dog as she passed him.

"Good luck," T-Dog said.

She paused to grin at T-Dog before disappearing through the doorway.

* * *

**Vocabulary**

Sorella—sister

Buono—good

Piccina—little one


	18. Chapter 17

Caterina was outside gathering up stones with a few others for a memorial service in Otis' honor. Hershel had removed the bullet fragments from her arm last night and, to use T-Dog's phrasing, it hurt like a bitch. He hadn't had any numbing agents so, after he had cleaned up the area as best as he could, he went straight in with the forceps that he had used on Carl. Caterina was somehow able to keep herself completely still for the entire thirty minutes that it took for him to remove the fragments. Needless, to say Hershel had been impressed with her endurance.

Now, the entire upper part of her arm was wrapped in bandages. The wounds still smarted quite a bit, but it was nothing that she couldn't deal with. Still, Hershel didn't want her putting too much stress on her arm, in case the muscles had been damaged by the fragments. But Caterina never did like following doctor's orders.

Everyone paused as they heard the sound of a motorcycle engine revving in the distance. They all turned to the dirt road leading up to the Greene household in search of the cause of the sound. Just then, the top of the Winnebago ride into their line of sight.

Caterina reached out and placed her hand on T-Dog's arm. "Go get the others," she instructed.

"Yeah…" T-Dog muttered before he ran off towards the house.

As the rest of their group pulled up into the Greene's front yard, Caterina stepped forward to meet them. Daryl was the first to pull in. As soon as he killed the engine of his brother's motorcycle, he looked over at Caterina and seemed to freeze. Caterina didn't need to look to know that he was staring at her arm.

"What the hell happened to you?" Daryl asked in that crotchety tone of his.

She subconsciously raised her arm and placed her hand over her wounds. "I got hit by a couple of bullet fragments," she answered coolly. She knew better than to think that Daryl really didn't care about her arm. He cared about everyone in their group, in his own weird way.

"By the same bullet that hit Carl?" Dale inquired.

Before Caterina could answer with more than just a nod, the others came walking out of the house. Rick and Lori moved to Caterina's side, the latter placing her hand on her bandaged shoulder. Caterina gave her a small smile, which she returned with a brighter one of her own.

"How is he?" Dale asked worriedly.

Lori turned her smile on Dale. "He'll pull through," she assured him. "Thanks to Hershel, and his people." She squeezed Caterina's shoulder gently. "And Cat, and…" She trailed off as she turned her gaze on Shane.

"And Shane," Rick added for her. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him."

Caterina stepped away from the Grimes couple as their new arrivals went to express their relief.

"How'd it happen?" Dale wondered.

"Huntin' accident," Rick sighed. "That's all. Just a stupid accident."

* * *

Caterina stood awkwardly between Glenn and Daryl as, one-by-one, each member of Hershel's group stepped up to place a stone on the already enormous pile that they had erected. She'd never been really good at funerals, mostly because she had never really been able to express her grief as well as she would like. After all the death that she'd seen over the years, Caterina's subconscious had created a sort of barrier around whatever anguish that she might feel. She guessed it stopped her from feeling the full effects, which in turn kept her from being able to express any of it.

But, lately, she'd been able to feel that barrier slowly breaking down, and she worried about what would happen once it finally fell.

"Blessed be God, father of our Lord Jesus Christ," Hershel recited. "Praised be to Him for the gift of our brother, Otis. For his span of years, for his abundance of character. Otis, who gave his life to save a child's. Now more than ever our most precious asset. We thank you, God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived: in grace."

Caterina glanced over at Shane where he stood a few people down from her. He was staring at the mound of stones with a haunted look on his face. She could almost see him reliving whatever had gone down at the high school. What troubled her was the coldness she could see in him, beneath the guilt.

"Shane, will you speak for Otis?" Hershel asked.

"I'm not good at it," Shane mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"You were the last one with him," Patricia begged him. "You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning."

"Okay," he relented. He hesitated for a moment, apparently trying to pull himself together to say what had happened. "We were about done, almost outta ammo. We were down to pistols by then. I was limpin'. It was bad, my ankle all swollen up… 'We gotta save the boy.'"

Caterina closed her eyes in realization. She didn't need to listen to the rest of his story. She knew now why that coldness was there. Shane sacrificed Otis in order to save Carl's life.

* * *

After the service, Caterina gathered with most of her group around T-Dog's van to talk with Hershel about Sophia. He said before that he had lived on this land his whole life, and they were hoping that he would be able to point them in the right direction in finding Sophia.

"How long has the girl been lost?" Hershel inquired.

"This'll be day three," Rick answered.

Maggie came jogging up behind them and squeezed between Rick and Caterina to lay out a map of the land in front of them. "County survey maps," she explained. "Shows terrain and elevations."

"This is perfect," Rick expressed. "We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."

"Not you," Hershel argued. "Not today. You gave three units blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passin' out." He looked across the van at Shane. "And your ankle—push it now, you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."

Daryl nodded. "Guess it's just me."

"And me," Caterina chimed in.

"What about your arm?" Rick opposed. "Hershel told you not to put too much stress on it."

"My arm's fine," she assured him. "It won't be put under any stress."

"What if you run into a walker?" Shane countered.

"Then we'll deal with it." She around at everyone's faces and saw their skeptical looks, and she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. She knew that they meant well, but this was ridiculous. Her arm was fine. The worst thing that would happen was that she reopened the wound. Besides, she had gone into combat with worse. "Look, I'll be fine," she tried again. "I've fought with worse than this."

Rick stared at her for a moment, no doubt thinking about her leg. Finally, he nodded. "Okay." He pointed at her like a father would his child when he was reprimanding them. "But you be careful, you understand?"

This time, she did roll her eyes. "Yes, madre."

He smiled slightly.

"We'll head back to the creek," Daryl decided once it had been decided that he would be leaving with Caterina to look for Sophia. "Work our way from there."

"Well, if Cat can go with Daryl, I can still do somethin' useful," Shane sighed. "I'll drive on up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back."

Rick nodded. "All right. Tomorrow then. We'll start doin' this right."

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives," Shane pointed out. "They need the gun training we've been promisin' 'em."

"I'd prefer you not carrying any guns on my property," Hershel jumped in. "We've managed so far without turnin' this into an armed camp."

"All due respect, you get a crowd of those things wanderin' in here…"

"Look, we're guests here," Rick reminded Shane before turning to Hershel. "This is your property and we _will_ respect that." He glanced around at the others when he said this and pulled his Python from his holster, placing it on the hood of the car. He looked at the others expectantly. Caterina pulled her handgun from its place tucked into the back of her pants and placed it next to Rick's. Shane rolled his eyes before doing the same. Rick nodded in satisfaction. "First thing's first: set camp, find Sophia."

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to," Shane said. "What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how we handle that."

Rick hesitated. He obviously had been avoiding this until this point, and understandably so. No one wanted to think about having to shoot Sophia if they ended up finding her as a walker. "You do what has to be done," he said finally.

"And her mother?" Maggie asked. "What do you tell her?"

"The truth," Andrea replied.

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons, make sure no one's carryin' till we're at a practicin' range off site," Shane offered. "I do request one rifleman on lookout," he expressed to Hershel. "Dale's got experience."

"Our people would feel safer," Rick added in the hopes of convincing the older man. "Less inclined to carry a gun."

Hershel looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded his consent.

"Thank you."

Now that everything that needed to be taken care of had been, Caterina pushed away from the van and motioned for Daryl to follow her as she made her way up to the house. "My stuff's still inside," she said. "I'll go get everything rounded up. In the meantime, you should get ready to head out."

"Yeah, all right," Daryl agreed.

Caterina strayed away from Daryl and started to make her way up the porch steps. She had only just stepped onto the porch when Daryl stopped her.

"You sure you're up to this?"

She looked back over her shoulder at him inquisitively.

"If you're not, just stay behind," he continued. "I'll do just fine on my own. I don't need you messin' things up, gettin' us _both_ killed."

Caterina turned to face him fully with a look of faux surprise on her face, her arms crossed in front of her. "Daryl Dixon," she almost cooed. "Is it just my imagination, or are you actually worried about me?" She knew that he was (it was too obvious), but she wanted to tease him about it now that she had the chance. She didn't think he would've appreciated her teasing him in front of the others, but now that they were alone it was fair game.

Daryl scoffed, but Caterina thought that she saw a bit of red in his face. "I think it's your imagination," he grunted.

"No, you're worried about me," she teased. "You wouldn't be trying to talk me out of going if you weren't."

"Maybe I just don't wanna have to worry about savin' your ass again. You ever think about that?"

Caterina raised an eyebrow. "And I haven't saved yours?" she countered.

Daryl didn't say anything to that. He knew very well that Caterina had saved him a few times, as well as the rest of the group. But, then again, he'd saved hers as well.

"I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine," Caterina assured him. "I've dealt with worse."

* * *

Once all her knives were back in place and her crossbow was strapped to her back, Caterina went outside to meet with Daryl. She paused when she saw Rick sitting on the porch steps, rolling his hat between his fingers. He looked up as Caterina allowed the screen door to slam shut behind her and got to his feet.

"Hey," he greeted her. "Where's Daryl?"

"Someone say my name?" Daryl asked as he came walking around the corner. He nodded at Cat. "You ready?"

She nodded. "Yeah." She stepped down the porch steps past Rick and walked out to meet Daryl.

Rick followed behind her. "Are you sure you're good by yourselves?"

"It's better with just the two of us," Daryl replied. "Don't worry, we'll be back before dark."

"Hey," Rick called when they didn't stop. The two exchanged looks before they stopped and turned to Rick. "We got a base. We can get this search properly organized now."

"You got a point, or are we just chattin'?" Daryl quipped.

Caterina sent Daryl a scolding look, which he ignored.

"My point is it lets you off the hook," Rick explained. "You don't owe us anything."

"My other plans fell through," Daryl muttered as he started off again.

Caterina looked at Rick apologetically before following after Daryl. They walked next to each other silently as they started to make their way to the fields that Caterina and Rick had run across just yesterday.

"Cat?" Lori called out from where she stood near the house.

Daryl stopped at the sound of her voice. "Jesus. Does everyone wanna stop and chat?" he scoffed.

"Easy, Daryl," Caterina tried to soothe him. "Let me just go see what she wants." She pulled her crossbow from her shoulder and threw it at Daryl, who caught it fairly quickly. "Hold that for me, would ya?" she asked with a cheeky grin. Daryl glowered at her but didn't complain as he strapped his own crossbow to his back so that he didn't have to hold both in his hands. Caterina turned and walked over to where Lori was waiting for her. "Hey. What's up?" she greeted.

"I'm sorry I'm keeping you from heading out," Lori apologized.

"Don't worry about it. Daryl just needs to get his panties out of a twist," she joked, earning a slight smile from Lori. "So what do you need?"

"I, um…" Lori stuttered. She cleared her throat and took a step closer to Caterina so that there was little space between them. "You said before that I could talk to you about anything," she reminded her "Did you really mean that?"

Caterina nodded, confused. "Yeah, of course I did."

"Great. Um…I…" She paused, seeming to think about whatever it was that she wanted to say. After a moment, she seemed to make up her mind. "I think I might be pregnant," she muttered just loudly enough that Caterina could hear her.

Caterina's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah. I was just wondering f you could ask Glenn to get me this test." Lori handed her a scratch piece of paper with the words TrueBlue written across it. "Don't tell him who it's for. And ask him to be real discreet about it," she instructed. "And here." She gave her another, large scrap of paper. "It's a list of other supplies for the group."

Caterina nodded in understanding. "Sure thing."

Lori sighed in relief. "Thank you, Cat," she thanked her before turning to walk back to the house.

Caterina looked over at where Daryl was waiting for her and motioned for him to stay put. Daryl rolled his eyes and tossed his hands up in the air in exasperation. She couldn't help but let an amused smile spread across her lips before she walked over where Glenn was standing amongst a small group of trees. He was looking through the binoculars at something. He seemed completely focused on whatever it was that he as looking at, because he didn't even hear Caterina walked up to him, and she didn't bother trying to quieten her footsteps.

"Hello farmer's daughter," Caterina heard Glenn mutter to himself.

She followed his line of sight to where Maggie was riding up along the dirt road with two horses. Caterina smirked to herself. So Glenn was attracted to Hershel's eldest daughter. That was good ammunition to use against him if the need ever arose. She stepped out into Glenn's field of vision, and he jumped and lowered the binoculars.

"I wasn't… I was just…" he immediately started to stutter.

"Don't worry, I won't say anything," she assured him with a mischievous smirk.

Glenn swallowed nervously. He really didn't like that smirk of hers…

Caterina held out the list of supplies that Lori had given her. "Here's your list," she said. "And there's one other item. It's personal, so try and be discreet about it, all right?" she instructed as she handed over the second piece of paper.

"Sure," Glenn said as he looked down at the second scrap. "Uh…what is it?"

"I can't say. You'll find out when you get to the store. Just look in the feminine hygiene section."

His confusion cleared from his face. "Oh. Enough said. Consider it done."

Caterina smiled. "Thanks, Glenn." She turned and gave a brief wave over her shoulder as she started back over to where Daryl was still standing, looking more than a little irritated that she'd left him to wait for so long. He was apparently anxious to get their search over with. She wasn't sure if it was because he didn't want to be going with just her, or because he wanted to find Sophia as soon as possible. Personally, she was going for the first thing…

"You done playing telephone?" he barked as he handed her crossbow back to her.

She raised an eyebrow. "You've played telephone?"

Daryl rolled his eyes, deciding not to answer to that. "Let's just get going," he grumbled as he started off towards the forest again.

Caterina smirked to herself and followed him.

* * *

The two walked in silence as they slowly made their way further into the forest. Even though Caterina was sure there were still some walkers out there amongst the trees, she couldn't help but think how serene it was out there. It seemed that the country was the only place that hadn't really been touched by this apocalypse, at least not yet. The trees still stood tall, their leaves a luscious green, and animals still scurried about in every which direction. She figured that the few walkers that had managed to make their way into the woods would have killed them off by now, but there they still were. It was almost as if the world out there in the forest was walker free.

But she knew that wasn't true, so she tried her best to keep quiet as she trailed behind Daryl. She made it a point not to make too much noise, stepping quietly to avoid snapping any branches that lay on the ground or crunching any leaves that had fallen from the trees. She mirrored Daryl's actions—pausing whenever he did, crouching whenever they heard something moving around nearby (every time they did, her muscles would coil in anticipation).

This continued for about an hour, and still they hadn't found any sign of Sophia.

Caterina paused as she noticed what looked like a random farmhouse about a click away. She whistled as silently as she could, and Daryl paused to look back at her. She nodded in the direction of the farmhouse, and Daryl followed her gaze. He nodded once he spotted the house, and the two made their way through the trees to the house.

They stopped as they cleared the trees, staring up at the house towering over them. The two exchanged looks before Daryl removed his crossbow from his shoulder, and they started making their way up to the house silently. Caterina stopped just outside of the house and watched as Daryl went straight up to the doors. She expected him to push open the door and sneak inside but, instead, he kicked the doors in.

Caterina jumped at the sudden noise. "Jesus, Daryl!" she hissed.

"What?" Daryl rumbled. "Ain't my fault you're so damn jumpy."

Caterina rolled her eyes and followed Daryl into the house.

The two made their way through the first floor, checking each room for Sophia or any walkers. She kept her eyes and ears open for any out of place sound, automatically ignoring any sound that Daryl could be making. Once she had cleared the last room, she followed Daryl into to the kitchen. She stood in the doorway as he went to check the smaller room on the other side. Once he had made the all-clear, she moved cautiously into the kitchen. She glanced around for any food, deciding that it would be smart to scavenge while they were there. After all, they couldn't afford to let good food go to wastes nowadays.

"Psst."

Caterina looked over at where Daryl was standing on the other side of the room, holding an open can of sardines. "Is it fresh?"

"Smells like it," Daryl replied. "She might've been here."

"Maybe," she muttered. She turned to look around the kitchen again, and she paused when she saw a half open cupboard at the back of the room. She looked at Daryl and motioned for him to watch her back as she went to open it. She crept up to the cupboard and, with one last glance at Daryl, ripped open doors. She expected something to jump out as soon as she did, but nothing came out. She relaxed and let her gaze fall to the floor. She raised an eyebrow when she saw that someone had made a nest of blankets there. "Guess she holed up in here in case any walkers strayed past."

"Well, don't matter now. Come on. If she holed up here, she might still be nearby."

Caterina nodded and followed Daryl out the back door.

"Sophia!" Daryl shouted as he paced along the back of the house. "Sophia! Sophia!"

Caterina stepped out into the yard, letting her eyes roam the area for any signs that Sophia was close by. She would've been lying if she said that she wasn't disappointed when she didn't see any distinct tracks leading away from the house. But that was to be suspected, she supposed. After all, it had been a few days since Sophia had been left to fend for herself. There would've been other things that would have walked over any tracks that she might have left behind, making it impossible to follow her.

"Well, I'll be damned," Daryl muttered, pulling Caterina from her thoughts. "It's a Cherokee rose."

She turned and watched as Daryl walked over to a line of greenery in the clearing. She followed him to it and watched as he knelt down in front of a single white flower blooming amongst the brushes. "I didn't peg you as the flower type, Daryl," she teased.

Daryl glanced up at her. "Shut up," he grumbled. "My moms told me about 'em."

Caterina knelt down next to Daryl, feeling that a story was about to come on.

"The story goes that, when American soldiers were movin' Indians off their land on the Trail of the Tears, the Cherokee mothers were grievin' and cryin' so much 'cause they were losin' their little ones along the way from exposure and disease and starvation. A lot of 'em just…disappeared. So the elders, they said a prayer, asked for a sign to uplift the mothers' spirits, give 'em strength and hope. The next day, this rose started to grow right where the mothers' tears fell."

She looked at Daryl. "Do you think this one grew for Sophia?"

"Maybe."

Caterina stared at Daryl, watching as the grief for Sophia's loss and the sympathy for Carol's plights flashed across in his eyes. It made her notice just how different he was from Merle. Where Merle had been cruel and unfeeling, Daryl was the opposite; he made himself look like he didn't care about anyone or anything but, in actuality, Daryl was kind and compassionate while still managing to be tough. He reminded her of Gabriele in that aspect. Of course, she'd always known this about Daryl. It just seemed more prominent in that moment.

Daryl looked up at Caterina and frowned at the contemplative look on her face as she stared at him. "What the hell are you starin' at?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, it's just… You're really not as much of a hard ass as you make yourself seem."

Daryl looked away with a huff. "Thanks."

Caterina rolled her eyes at his sarcastic tone. "You know what I mean."

Daryl looked at her and met her gaze. They stared at each other for what felt like forever, the two of them seemingly frozen in place. Daryl was the first to move. He placed his hand on the ground to brace himself as he slowly leaned forward, his eyes never moving away from hers. Caterina's heart was hammering in her chest as she leaned forward to meet him, almost as if there was some kind of magnetic force pulling her towards him. Her mind was practically screaming at her, telling her to stand up and walk away before they did anything that they would regret, but she kept moving to meet him until their lips were touching.

It couldn't have been more than a few seconds before they both pulled away. They stared at each other in slight surprise, as if neither of them had understood why they had just done that. And, honestly, neither of them did. They had just acted on instinct.

Caterina finally turned her gaze away from Daryl. She braced herself on her knees and stood up. "I think I saw an empty beer bottle back in the house," she muttered, her face angled away from him. She could feel the blood pooling in her cheeks, and she didn't want him to see it. She also didn't want to see the regret that she was sure would be on his face. "Why don't you pick that rose so we can bring it back for Carol?" she suggested before walking off.

* * *

They ended up keeping to their word and returned to the farmhouse within one or two hours of sunset. Neither of them had spoken a word since the farmhouse. They hadn't even looked at each other. Caterina had been feeling her heart sink with each second of silence that passed between them. She should have listened to her head and walked away before either of them could have done what they did. Then she wouldn't be feeling as if her heart had been pulled out. She was certain that Daryl regretted what happened, even if she hadn't been able to force herself to look at him.

"Looks like Rick's wife is waitin' for ya," Daryl spoke up as they reached the RV.

Caterina looked up to the Greene house and saw Lori standing on the porch, holding her hand over her eyes as she stared out at where she and Daryl were standing. "Glenn must be back with the supplies," she said to herself. She took a step towards the house, but she was stopped as Daryl reached out and grabbed her arm. As soon as the skin of his hand made contact with her bare arm, she felt a shiver run up from her arm to her spine and down her back.

"Hold up," Daryl said. He pulled his hand back as Caterina turned to face him, her hand automatically going to where Daryl had grabbed her, and thrust the beer bottle containing the Cherokee rose into her free hand. "Give this to Carol, would ya?"

Caterina frowned slightly. "Why can't you?"

"I got other things to do," he lied. "I can't be bothered givin' away flowers."

She crossed her arms in front of her, momentarily forgetting about the apprehension that she was feeling towards Daryl. "Really? Because it sounds like you're scared to give it to her," she teased.

Daryl scoffed, as if the idea that he was scared of anything was ridiculous. "I ain't scared of some grievin' woman."

Caterina grinned mischievously. "Good," she said as she placed the bottle back in Daryl's hand, careful not to let her hand graze his as she pulled away. "Then you won't have any problem giving this to Carol before you go off and do your 'other things.' I'm sure it won't take more than a minute." Daryl scowled at her, but her grin just widened before she turned away and started off to where Lori was waiting for her.

"Hey," Daryl called after her, making her stop and turn back to him again. He looked a bit uneasy now, but Caterina had a feeling that it wasn't from the idea of having to show his soft side to Carol. "About what happened back at the farmhouse…" he started.

The grin fell from Caterina's lips, and she shook her head before Daryl could say anything more. "I'm not sure what you're talking about," she said in a slightly detached tone.

He stared at her for a long moment. His face was inexpressive, but Caterina could see a bit of confusion in his eyes along with something that she couldn't quite identify. If she thought about it, she would say that it was disappointment, but she wasn't foolish enough to think that Daryl had been about to say anything other than that he wanted them to forget about the kiss and act as if it had never happened. After all, Daryl didn't feel anything for her apart from maybe physical attraction.

Daryl nodded finally. "Right…"

Caterina turned away again and made her way across the yard to where Lori was waiting for her on the porch. She tried to clear her face as she approached her. She didn't want Lori seeing the disappointment or sadness that she was sure had been on her face after she left Daryl.

"Hey," Caterina greeted.

"Hey," Lori returned with a slight frown. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she assured her, although her heart jumped uneasily in her chest. "Why?"

"You look upset. Did Daryl say something?" she asked.

"No."

"You sure?" Lori wondered, looking less than convinced. When Caterina didn't say anything, Lori moved down the steps so that she was standing closer to her. "Look, I know that you have feelings for him—"

Caterina's eyes widened. "Whoa, what? What makes you say that?" she demanded, cutting her off before she could say anything more.

"Well, it's just…the way you look at him sometimes," Lori explained with an understanding look on her face. "It's the same look I give Rick."

"What, you mean a look of guilt?" she remarked somewhat bitterly. She regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth, causing Lori to look down shamefully. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…" She trailed off, not sure quite how to apologize properly.

Lori shook her head. "No, it's all right. I deserve it." She smiled slightly in an attempt to assure Caterina, but she continued to frown apologetically. "I just meant that you seem closer to Daryl than anyone else in the group. Carol and I were just talking about how you told me before that you weren't going to do anything to stress out your arm, and then you up and volunteer to go out looking for Sophia with Daryl."

She rolled her eyes. "Great. Now I'm the center of your gossip," she grumbled.

Lori took a small step forward and reached out to place her hand on Caterina's shoulder. "Caterina," she started sternly, staring into Caterina's eyes in a way that made it hard for her to look away. "Do you like Daryl?"

Caterina didn't answer for a long moment. "…Are Glenn and Maggie back with the supplies?" she replied finally.

She looked almost disappointed as she dropped her hand from Caterina's shoulder. "Yeah. He's right over there," she replied, nodding over to where the others had set up camp while Caterina and Daryl had been gone. Glenn was sitting down next to one of the tents, his backpack set between his legs. "He's been looking for you."

Caterina nodded in understanding. "I'll be right back," she promised before she walked over to where Glenn was waiting.

Glenn looked up as she approached and quickly got onto his feet to meet her. He reached into one of the side pockets and pulled out a wad of white paper bag, which Caterina guessed housed the test that Lori had requested for Caterina to ask for. "There you are," Glenn said as she reached him. He held the bag over to her. "I got what you asked me to."

"Thanks," she said as she took the bag and tucked it into one of her pockets.

"Look, uh…" Glenn started awkwardly. "I know it's not my place to say anything, but is it such a good idea for you to be doing…that stuff with Daryl?" he asked.

Caterina frowned. "What is it with everyone suddenly thinking that Daryl and I are an item?" she almost snapped. She wanted to yell at him, but she repressed the urge. It wouldn't be fair to Glenn for her to go off on him just because she was upset. In all honesty, she wasn't even upset that they all seemed to think that she and Daryl were in some sort of secret relationship. The thing that upset her was that it would never happen.

"Well, aren't you?" Glenn asked, apparently confused. "I mean, I've seen the way you two look at each other sometimes."

"No, we're not," she stated firmly.

He nodded in understanding. "Okay. Sorry, I just assumed…" He trailed off, deciding not to upset Caterina any further. "But if you and Daryl haven't been…" He stopped himself again and cleared his throat. "Then why did you want the test?"

"It's not for me," Caterina answered evasively.

"Oh." Glenn's eyes widened in realization. "Oh. Got it."

"Thanks, Glenn," she said as she gave him a pointed look, silently telling him not to say anything to anyone.

"No problem."

Caterina returned to where Lori was waiting next to the porch. She pulled the package from her pocket and handed it over to Lori silently. She took it quickly before anyone could see and tucked it into the back of her pants, dropping her shirt over it so that now one would see it there. Luckily, her shirt was baggy enough that no one would be able to tell that she was hiding anything back there.

"Thanks," Lori said. "Does Glenn…?"

"Yeah. I didn't tell him," she assured her. "He figured it out on his own. But I'm sure he won't tell anyone."

Lori nodded. "Right. Thanks again."

"No problem."


	19. Chapter 18

**Author's Note:**

Hello all! Here's a long chapter for you guys! I couldn't decide where to cut it off, so I'm just posting it all together. I feel like the quality fell dramatically towards the end, but it took me hours to write it and I'm exhausted! Hopefully you'll enjoy it all the same.

Thanks for all the reviews and favorites. I'm glad that this story is doing so well. And thanks for your criticism as well. I have some plans for later on how to fix the Mary-Sueish aspects about Caterina, since it's been my fear from the beginning that you would find her too perfect, and I plan on adding more interactions between Caterina and the other characters that doesn't really follow the series.

* * *

The next morning, Caterina was awoken early by Hershel. He wanted to take a look at her arm to see how it was healing before they both went about their separate chores for the day. He led her inside to the kitchen and had her sit down while he gathered a change of bandages. He unwrapped the soiled bandages from her arm and tossed them aside before taking her arm into his hands gently and raising it so that he could get a better look at the fragment wounds.

"Looks like you got a bit of an infection," Hershel observed.

Caterina looked down at her arm and saw that the area around the two entry wounds were a little bit swollen, and there was an expanding area of redness around both wounds. She had noticed that it was aching a bit more than it had yesterday, but she'd just thought that she had slept on it wrong.

"Must be because we waited so long to change your bandages yesterday."

"That's my fault," she muttered. "I should've informed you as soon as I returned yesterday."

Hershel looked her in the face. "Yes, you should have," he scolded lightly. "But it's too late to be pointing fingers. I'll get some antibiotics." He stood and went to one of the cabinets where he kept the medicine. He grabbed a bottle of Cephalexin and removed one pill before putting it back in its place. He placed it on the table in front of Caterina. "Do you need some water to wash it down?"

Caterina shook her head and grabbed the pill, tossing it back.

Hershel nodded in approval before reclaiming his place next to Caterina. He grabbed the clean pile of bandages and set to work wrapping her arm again. "I want you to take it easy today. Find some things to do around the farm. If the infection is better by tomorrow, you can go off and join your friends."

"Yes, sir," she grumbled. She really didn't want to be stuck around camp, but she knew that Hershel would give her hell if she didn't listen to him this time around. At any rate, it would give her the chance to keep away from Daryl.

Caterina had spent all of last night thinking about her relationship with Daryl. She felt that she had earned the right to call him a friend after everything that they'd been through together, just like she was able to call everyone else in the group a friend (or at the very least a comrade). But, with Daryl, she seemed to want something more. She wasn't sure why that was. Back before all of this with the walking dead had started, she wouldn't have even considered going for a guy like Daryl. She would have brushed him off as just some other redneck. She probably wouldn't have even tried to befriend him like she had. But things were different now. Friends were few and far between nowadays. You didn't have the luxury of choosing who you became friends with. It was thanks to that Caterina had grown to know Daryl beyond that rough and tough exterior of his, even if most of the things that she found out about him were from her own intuition.

Since Caterina was able to grow closer to Daryl, she somehow developed feelings for him beyond just her initial attraction. She wasn't even sure when it had started. Somewhere along the way, she came to see him in a different light than she saw Rick or Glenn or any of the other men in the group.

"There," Hershel spoke, pulling Caterina from her thoughts.

She looked down at her arm and saw that Hershel had finished redressing her wound. "Thank you, Hershel," she expressed as she got to her feet.

"You're welcome. Just remember what I said about taking it easy," he warned gently.

"Yes, sir," she replied with a playful salute, earning a smile from the older man.

Caterina walked back out to where the rest of the group were camped. It looked like everyone was already up and getting ready for the day. She spotted Carol walking back from the fields carrying a basket of wet laundry under her arm. Caterina walked forward to meet her by the picnic table just outside of their campsite.

"Hey," she greeted her. "Need some help?"

Carol looked at her in pleasant surprise. "Sure. That would be great."

Caterina smiled slightly and grabbed a handful of clothes from the basket. She separated a soggy flannel shirt from the bundle in her hands that she recognized as Daryl's. It was the same shirt that he had worn on their trip yesterday. She waved that thought away and tossed the rest of the clothes over her shoulder as she approached the clothes line that Shane had strung up yesterday.

She had working with Carol to hang up the laundry to dry for what felt like ten minutes before she saw Lori crawl out of the tent that she shared with Rick. She guessed that Carol had decided to let her sleep in instead of waking her up to help her with the laundry.

"I can't believe I slept in," Lori muttered as she joined the two women. She immediately jumped in and started to help hang up the rest of the laundry.

"It's all right," Carol assured her. "You must've needed it."

"Are you feeling all right?" Caterina queried.

Lori looked up at Caterina but didn't say anything. But she didn't have to. Caterina could tell from the meaningful look in her eyes what she wanted to say. She must've taken the pregnancy test that Glenn had recovered for them and, judging by the mixture of grief and elation in Lori's eyes, it had been positive.

"Next time wake me, all right?" Lori requested. "Especially on laundry day."

"I can manage," Carol replied. "Besides, Caterina's been a big help."

She looked over at Caterina as she hung up a pair of jean shorts. "I'm surprised you're helping with laundry. You're usually out dealing with the men," she teased. Lori knew that Caterina didn't really like participating in womanly chores. She was far too tomboyish for that. She was more comfortable helping to protect the group.

"I figured it's the least I can do," Caterina said. "Besides, Hershel has me on leave for the day."

Lori frowned at that. "Are you all right?" she asked, automatically thinking of the worse.

"I'm fine," she reassured her. "My arm just has a slight infection. He wants me to focus on that instead of going off and forgetting about it like I did yesterday."

"Be sure that you do."

Caterina stuck her tongue out at her, allowing herself a moment of childishness. She figured that it was necessary to have a few of those moments, especially with how dreary everything had been in the past couple of days. Back during her times in war, Caterina had made it a point to be the childish one in her squadron whenever the chance arose. Every other time, she was the straight-faced soldier that she had been trained to be.

Lori and Carol exchanged amused looks at Caterina's rather out-of-character reaction.

"That reminds me," Carol spoke up. "I had something that I wanted to run by you, Lori."

"What's that?" Lori asked.

"Well, that big kitchen of theirs got me thinking. I wouldn't mind cooking in a real kitchen again. Maybe we all pitch in and cook dinner for Hershel and his family tonight."

Caterina raised an eyebrow at her. "How does my sticking my tongue out remind you of dinner?" she asked incredulously.

The two women laughed but otherwise ignored her.

"After everything they've done for us, seems like the least we could do," Lori agreed, still chuckling frlom what Caterina had said.

"You mind extending the invitation?" Carol wondered. When Lori just gave her a curious look, she went on to explain. "I'd just feel more right coming from you."

"How so?"

"Well, you're Rick's wife. It sort of makes you our unofficial first lady."

Caterina glanced over her shoulder just as Shane and Rick started making their way through their camp to their designated planning area (T-Dog's van), the map that Maggie had given them rolled up in Rick's hand. "Mornin', guys," the former Sheriff's Deputy greeted everyone. "Let's get goin'. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

"Would you mind if I joined them?" Caterina asked of the two women. "Even if I can't go with them, I at least want to know the plan."

"Not at all," Lori replied. "Go on ahead."

Caterina grinned and finished pinning up the tank top that she had in her hand before she joined the group—minus Lori and Carol. She fell into place next to T-Dog and watched as he and Rick rolled out the map on the hood of the van, placing a small stone in each corner to keep it from rolling up on them. She heard someone walk up on her other side, and she glanced over to see Daryl standing next to her as he slipped into the worn out flannel shirt that Caterina had hung up on the clothesline not even twenty minutes ago.

Daryl looked at her from the corner of his eye, and she turned away before she could meet his gaze.

"All right, everyone's gettin' their new search grids today," Rick explained. "If she made it as far as the farmhouse Cat and Daryl found, she mighta gone further east than we've been so far." Rick looked at Cat. "Hershel says that you're on bed rest for now, so to speak. You can join Daryl in his grid you've taken care of that arm of yours."

Caterina nodded, ignoring the feel of Daryl's gaze on the side of her face.

"I'd like to help," a new voice chimed in.

It belonged to Jimmy, one of Hershel's group. From what Caterina had observed, he wasn't related to the Greenes. He was probably a friend of the family, or more specifically Hershel's youngest daughter Beth's. They tended to keep to each other's sides most of the time. Caterina was actually surprised that he was out there with them now when Beth was nowhere in sight.

"I know the area pretty well and stuff," Jimmy added.

"And Hershel's okay with this?" Rick asked. He didn't seem to believe that he would be, but he obviously felt the need to ask for some reason.

Jimmy nodded. "Yeah. He said I should ask you."

Rick looked over at where Caterina stood, silently asking for her opinion. Caterina just shrugged. Obviously the kid was lying, but she figured that it wouldn't really hurt if he helped them look for Sophia, as long as they didn't let him go off with someone that they weren't sure would be able to protect him if they got attacked. And if Hershel found out and forbade him from joining in on their search, it would be the end of it.

"All right then," Rick relented. "Thanks."

"Nothin' about what Cat and Daryl found screams Sophia to me," Shane spoke up from where he was sitting in the passenger side door frame. His ankle was still causing him problems, so he'd been trying to keep off it as much as possible. "Anyone coulda been holed up in that farmhouse."

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea countered.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high," Daryl informed them. He held out his hand to indicate a height just a big higher than his waist, which was about the same height that Sophia and Carl were.

"It's a good lead."

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again," Rick said hopefully.

"No maybe about it," Daryl argued as Dale came up on his side with the duffle bag that contained the group's weapon. "I'm gonna borrow a horse, head on up to this ridge right here," he said, pointing to the ridge indicated on the map. It was a few miles further east than the area that he and Caterina had covered yesterday. "Take a bird's eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her."

"Good idea. Maybe you'll see your Chupacabra up there too," T-Dog joked.

"Chupacabra?" Rick echoed interestedly.

"You never heard this?" Dale asked as he pulled out the Browning Automatic Safari rifle and gave it to Rick. "Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra."

Caterina stifled a laugh while Jimmy openly chuckled.

Daryl glared across the van at the boy. "What're you brayin' at, jackass?" he snapped.

Caterina reached out and smacked Daryl on the arm almost instinctively. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and this time met her gaze. Caterina's amused smile fell slightly, and she looked away, crossing her arms in front of her. Neither of the two noticed the strange looks that the others were giving them.

"So you believe in a blood sucking dog?" Rick joked.

"Do you believe in dead people walkin' around?" Daryl remarked, to which Rick made a look that clearly said "touché."

Jimmy tried to reach for the Browning that Rick had placed on the hood, but Rick snatched it up before he could get a good grip on it. "Hey, hey," he warned as he pulled the rifle out of Jimmy's reach. "Ever fine one before?"

"Well, if I'm goin' out, I want one," Jimmy said.

"Yeah, and people in Hell want slurpees," Daryl muttered sarcastically as he strapped his crossbow to his shoulder. He moved around Caterina, and his arm brushed against her back as he passed. She stiffened at the sudden contact and watched Daryl like a hawk as he walked away, not bothering to look back at her.

Caterina allowed her gaze to turn back to the others once he was out of her line of sight. This time, she did see the curious looks that they were giving her.

"What?" she asked.

They all exchanged looks with each other, but they didn't say anything.

* * *

There were only so many chores for someone to do during the apocalypse and, since Caterina had been grounded to the farm, she had already done everything that was needed of her. She helped the women finish with the laundry, distributed weapons to the grid teams, and helped Hershel stock all of the items that Maggie and Glenn had gotten on their supply run yesterday. Now, it seemed that the others had everything under control, so Caterina returned to her tent.

She grabbed her knives from the pile of weapons that she had made in the corner of her tent, along with her whetstone and a clean rag to clean them with. She sat down on a log outside the tent and set to work cleaning and sharpening her knives.

As she went through the all too familiar routine, her mind wandered to Daryl. It had been over two hours since he left to scout the ridge. She knew he was more than capable of taking care of himself, especially out in the forest, but she couldn't help but worry. While Daryl was tactical, he tended to act carelessly sometimes. That was one of the reasons why Caterina had gone with him last time. Not to mention the area that he was going to was uncharted territory for them. Who was to say how many dangers it held?

"You all right?"

Caterina looked up at the sudden voice. Lori was standing in front of her, staring down at her with a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Caterina answered. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've been wiping down the same knife for the past ten minutes."

Caterina followed Lori's gaze to her Buck knife and saw that she was right. Any dirt or dried blood that had been left on it had long since been rubbed away. Now, she was just wiping the rag along a clean blade. She tossed the rag over her shoulder with a slight frown and slid the knife in its holster before grabbing her switchblade.

"Worrying about Daryl?" Lori asked.

"Not particularly," she lied. "He can take care of himself."

"Still doesn't keep you from worrying though, does it?"

Caterina glanced up at Lori but didn't say anything. She just opened up her switchblade and started running the blade across her whetstone. She didn't look away even as Lori settled down on the log next to her.

"What happened between the two of you yesterday?" Lori wondered.

"What makes you think anything happened?"

"Well, for one thing, you're not looking me in the face like you usually do."

Caterina paused the blade on the stone and looked up at Lori from the corner of her eye. She snorted lightly and went back to sharpening her knife. "I think you're starting to get to know me a little too well," she muttered.

"I guess that's what happens when you spend time in a group with someone. That's also why I've noticed that you're avoiding Daryl." She paused, expecting Caterina to make a comment about that, but she just continued tending to her switchblade. "Since you became a part of the group, Daryl is one of the people you've kept the closest to, and now you're suddenly avoiding him like he has the plague. That tells me something happened between you. Even Rick's noticed there's something off, and he isn't exactly the most observant man."

She finally put down her whetstone and looked at Lori. "You're not going to let this go until I tell you, are you?"

"Does that mean there's something to tell?"

Caterina sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, contemplating whether or not she should tell her about the kiss. Lori had, after all, confided in her about her pregnancy at the cost of her own privacy. And it would be nice to have another woman to talk to, especially since she had never really been good with boys. And she was positive that she didn't have to worry about Lori blabbing about it to anyone.

"Back at the farmhouse we thought Sophia had been holing up in…" Caterina finally yielded. "We sort of…kissed, I guess."

Lori's eyes widened. "Really? How was it?"

She chuckled somewhat humorlessly. "Are you seriously asking _me _for details?"

"Right. Sorry," she apologized with a grin. "But did you like it?"

"I don't know," she muttered. "It was quick. I don't think either of us really knew what we were doing. It just sort of…happened."

Lori placed her hand on Caterina's shoulder. "Cat," she said, urging the other woman to look up at her. "Do you like Daryl?"

Caterina looked away from her. "I don't know," she answered truthfully. "I've never been too good at measuring my own feelings when it comes to stuff like this. But…" She paused, thinking about how she'd been reacting towards Daryl as of late. She looked back up at Lori and nodded. "Yeah, I think I do." She watched as an understanding smile crossed Lori's lips and looked away, turning her gaze back down to her switchblade as she tossed it between her hands. "But it doesn't matter. He doesn't feel the same way."

"How do you know that?"

"It makes sense. I mean, he just wants to forget about what happened."

Lori frowned. "He said that?"

"Well, not in so many words…" Caterina mumbled.

"Then how do you know for sure?" Lori asked. When Caterina didn't say anything, Lori patted her on the shoulder and stood up. "Just talk to him when he gets back, all right? Who knows? He might feel the same way."

She snorted derisively. "I seriously doubt that."

"You won't know unless you talk to him," she pointed out before walking away.

Caterina turned her head and watched as Lori walked back up towards the house. Surely Lori wasn't right. While she appreciated the romanticism, she had never had much luck with boys. No matter how much she might hope that Daryl felt for her even a fraction of the same way that she seemed to feel for him, she didn't think that it could be possible.

She shook her head and grabbed her whetstone, running the blade of her switchblade across it again.

* * *

It was getting pretty late, and Daryl still hadn't returned from his little excursion. In order to avoid making herself sick with worry, Caterina had taken out one of the Sherlock novels that she kept in her pack and was sitting outside her tent reading it. It was _The_ _Sign of Four_. She had read it more times than she cared to count, but it kept her mind occupied enough to keep it away from Daryl at the least.

Lori had been by not too long ago to inform her that she and Carol were going to get started on the dinner along with Patricia as well as Hershel's daughters, just to inform her that she was not to join them. She apparently thought it would be in Caterina's best interest if she spent some time relaxing. She had even forbade her from doing anything even remotely close to "work."

The only reason that Caterina agreed was to avoid the possibility of receiving a lecture.

"What's with the Annie Oakley routine?" Caterina heard Dale say.

"I don't wanna wash clothes anymore, Dale," Andrea's voice replied. "I want to help keep the camp safe. Is that all right with you?"

When Dale didn't respond, Caterina looked up at where Andrea was positioned on top of the RV. She had taken it upon herself to act as their lookout while Dale had been out gathering water from one of the wells. Caterina felt that she was trying a bit too hard to be "one of the boys," but she wasn't going to say anything about it. Andrea was determined to prove herself. Nothing that she said would convince her to take it down a notch, no matter how much she needed to.

Andrea met Caterina's gaze. "You got a problem?" she asked.

Caterina raised an eyebrow at her challenging tone. "Do you _want_ me to have a problem?" she bit back a bit more harshly.

Andrea backed down instantly, turning her gaze away.

She rolled her eyes. No matter how big Andrea talked, she never seemed to live up to her own hype. She turned back to her book, her eyes trailing down until she picked back up where she left off.

_'The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning…'_

"Walker!" Andrea shouted suddenly, causing Caterina's head to snap up.

She followed the blonde's line of sight out to the fields across from where they sat. She could just see a lone figure staggering in their direction, having just broken through the line of trees. It didn't seem to be moving very fast, so she wasn't sure if the figure knew that they were there.

Rick came jogging over to the RV. "Just the one?" he asked.

Andrea snatched up Dale's binoculars and looked through them at the figure. She lowered them a bit too excitedly and knelt down to grab Dale's Winchester. "I bet I can nail it from here," she said as she raised the rifle to aim.

"No," Rick said emphatically. "No, Andrea, put the gun down."

She did as she was told, but she looked down at Rick crossly.

"You'd best let us handle this," Shane jumped in as he, T-Dog, and Glenn approached the RV, each of them wielding blunt weapons.

"Shane, hold up," Rick said. "Hershel wants to deal with walkers."

"What for, man? We got it covered."

The three men started off towards the figuring approaching them, neither of them glancing at Rick as they passed him. Rick cursed to himself before he hurried onto the RV only to return a moment later with his Python in hand.

"Come on," Rick urged Caterina, who snatched up her crossbow and ran after Rick as he chased after the others.

Caterina ended up in front of the group as they ran across the field. She was much faster than them; not to mention she was the least tired, since she'd been off duty the entire day. Shane grunted as he followed her. He was practically stumbling as he ran. It definitely wasn't a good idea for him to be running on that bum ankle of his, but Shane was a stubborn man. Even if Rick told him to go back to the camp and leave the walker to them, he would just brush him off as he usually did.

As they neared the walker, Caterina started to realize that it looked suspiciously like Daryl. In fact, it was even wearing the same top and pants as Daryl had when he left, and a crossbow was dangling from its hand.

The group slowed to a stop as the walker did the same, staring at them as it stumbled in place. Its eyes seemed to sweep over them quickly before falling on Caterina. She frowned as she saw what looked like relief cross the walker's surprisingly blue eyes. It definitely wasn't normal for a walker. Not to mention there was fresh meat standing right in front of it, and it hadn't even moved to attack them yet.

It took less than a second for it to click in Caterina's mind that this wasn't a walker. It was Daryl. She practically felt her heart leap up into her throat as she stared at the pitiful figure in front of her. His face was covered in dirt, he had fresh blood around his mouth and chin, and there were patches of it on his shirt, but it was definitely Daryl.

When Rick saw no one else was going to fire, he raised his Python. But, before he could pull the trigger, Caterina reached out and placed her hand on his arm.

"Wait," she urged him.

"Is that Daryl?" Glenn gasped, apparently having come to the same conclusion as Caterina.

Everyone was silent as they stared at the figure in silence. Daryl still hadn't said a word; instead, he just continued to stare at Caterina while he struggled to keep himself standing. Caterina noticed that his flannel shirt had been ripped up and made into a makeshift bandage and tourniquet, centered on his left side.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head," Daryl finally spoke as he looked away from Caterina to Rick.

Everyone relaxed at the sound of his voice. For a moment, they all had been worried that Daryl had fallen victim to a walker. They couldn't see the wound in his side, so they couldn't be sure if he'd been bitten. Only Caterina seemed to have realized before he spoke that he wasn't a walker.

"You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Daryl challenged.

Just after he said that, there was the sound of gunfire and he fell onto back.

"Daryl!" Caterina cried fearfully at the same time that Rick started to shout.

Caterina dropped her crossbow carelessly as she ran to Daryl's side, falling to her knees at his side while Rick hurried around to his other side. She grabbed Daryl by the chin gently and turned his head so she could look for a wound. She was relieved when she saw that the bullet had just grazed him in the head. He must've fallen out of shock.

"You lucky son of a bitch," she breathed.

"Says you," Daryl slurred as he reached up to run his fingers along the wound. He allowed Caterina and Rick to grab his arms and pull him up off the ground. "I was just kiddin' about shootin' me," he grunted.

Once they had him on his feet, Caterina and Rick pulled Daryl's arms around their shoulders. As soon they had his weight balanced between them, it doubled as his head dropped to his chest before it rolled in Caterina's direction. She worried for a moment that they had lost him for real this time, but then she felt his breath on her bare collarbone. She gave a shaky sigh of relief and looked over at Rick, who was staring at her in concern. She nodded to his unasked question, and he sighed as well.

The two secured their grip on Daryl before they started to drag him towards the farmhouse, the rest of the group right behind them. Andrea and Dale were running up to them, apparently having heard their cries when Daryl fell. Caterina didn't let her gaze rest too long on Andrea. She knew that it had been Andrea that shot Daryl, and she was angrier than she had felt in a long time. But now wasn't the time to deal with it. They needed to get Daryl to Hershel so that he could tend to his wounds.

"Oh my God!" Andrea cried as she saw Daryl hanging off Caterina and Rick's shoulders. "Oh my God, is he dead?"

"Unconscious," Rick corrected her. "You just grazed him."

"But look at him. What the hell happened?" Glenn asked. "Look, he's wearing ears."

Caterina looked down at the makeshift necklace hanging from Daryl's shoulders. It looked like he had strung a pair of ears from a walker onto it along with the head of a squirrel. She guessed he had done it in an attempt to keep himself from being noticed by any walkers after he had gotten injured. In the condition that he was in, it would've been impossible for him to defend himself if he had run across any.

Rick ripped the string from Daryl's neck and tucked it into his chest pocket. "Let's keep that to ourselves," he suggested.

"Guys?" T-Dog called from the back of the group. "Isn't this Sophia's?"

Everyone stopped and looked back at T-Dog. He was holding an old rag doll that looked just like the one that Morales' daughter had given to Sophia when they left the group.

* * *

After they had dragged Daryl to the house, Hershel directed them upstairs to one of the guest rooms. Rick and Caterina had laid him down on the bed while Hershel and Patricia gathered all of the supplies that he would need to tend to Daryl's wounds. It turned out that Daryl had somehow fallen on his arrow, causing the wound in his side.

As soon as Hershel started to sew up that wound, Daryl woke up.

"Ow!" Daryl shouted as he tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by Rick and Shane.

"Stay still," Hershel instructed him. "Roll onto your side."

Daryl did as he was told with a cringe. "How 'bout a little warnin' next time?" he snapped.

Caterina grabbed a clean towel from the items that Hershel had brought up and handed it to Daryl. "Here," she said as she leaned around Hershel and pressed the towel to the cut on Daryl's head. He flinched away from it as soon as it made contact. "Sorry." She pressed the towel to his head again, and this time he was able to keep himself still.

Daryl reached up and placed his hand under Caterina's so that he could take over pressing it to the wound. Caterina jumped as the rough skin of his hand brushed against her, and she pulled her hand back a bit too quickly. Daryl glanced up at her from the corner of his eye before turning his head away so that she couldn't see his face. Caterina frowned at this but didn't say anything. Instead, she went to stand in the far corner of the bedroom, her arms crossed in front of her.

"Daryl, you found Sophia's doll," Rick reminded him. "Could you tell me _where_ you found it?"

When Daryl nodded, Shane grabbed the map that they had brought up into the room with them and handed it to Rick before sitting down in a chair next to Caterina. Rick spread the map out on the bed, and Hershel paused for a moment to allow Daryl to prop his head up on his free hand to give himself a better view of the map.

"I found it washed up on the creek bed right there," Daryl said, pointing to an area on the map. "She must've dropped it crossin' there somewhere."

"Cuts the grid almost in half," Rick told Shane.

"Yeah, you're welcome."

Rick turned back to Hershel as he finished stitching Daryl's side. "How's he lookin'?" he asked.

"I had no idea we'd be goin' through the antibiotics so quickly," Hershel replied. He cut the stitch and tied it off before walking over to the washing bin that he had set up in front of the dresser. He dipped his hands in the water and started scrubbing his hands to wash away the blood on his hands. "Any idea what happened to my horse?" he asked.

"Yeah, the one who almost killed me?" Daryl answered. "If it's smart, it left the country."

"We call that one Nelly, as in nervous Nelly. I coulda told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask," he hinted.

Daryl looked away guiltily.

Hershel grabbed an extra towel from the dresser and walked over to Rick, who stood to meet him, as he dried off his hands. "It's a wonder you people have survived this long," he said.

The two stared at each other for a long moment, seeming to be having a kind of stand-off.

Finally, Rick turned away to look at Daryl. "We'll leave you to get some rest," he muttered before he motioned for Shane and Caterina to go with him. "Come on."

Shane stood up and followed Rick over to the door. Caterina, however, didn't move. She stayed in the corner, staring down at Daryl. He obviously knew that she was trying to meet his gaze, judging by the way that his shoulders were tensed, but he seemed determined not to look at her.

Caterina gave a soft sigh and pushed out of the corner as she dropped her arms to her sides. "Take care of his head too, if you would," she asked of Hershel as she passed him. She slipped by the two standing by the door so that she could leave the room first.

Lori looked up as Caterina stepped out into the hall. "How is he?" she asked as she got to her feet.

She didn't answer . She just brushed past her, deciding to leave it for Rick and Shane to tell her about Daryl's condition.

Caterina instead went back down into the living room, where the rest of the group was waiting for news on Daryl. They all stood up as Caterina passed through the archway, but she didn't stop to talk to them. She really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now.

She crossed the room to the front door. She could see Andrea sitting on the porch steps, so she threw open the screen door to join her on the porch. She heard someone following behind her, but she didn't bother to look to see who it was. It was more than likely Dale, judging by the faint sound of shuffling feet.

Andrea looked over her shoulder as the screen door closed behind Caterina. "How's he doing?" she asked concernedly.

"He'll be fine," Caterina answered.

Andrea sighed in relief. "Thank God…"

Caterina stared at her for a moment before she walked down the porch steps past her. She took a few steps out into the yard and paused. She stood there for a moment, staring out at the field that Andrea had first spotted Daryl in. Finally, she turned back to look at Andrea.

"I understand that you want to be useful," Caterina started coolly.""But the next time you choose to go against Rick's orders and take things into your own hands, I will make it my job to make sure that the _only_ thing you're allowed to do is wash clothes for as long as I am a part of this group. Do you understand?"

Dale and Andrea stared at Caterina in shock. As she had finished her little speech, her voice had grown more and more hostile. It was the first time that either of them had ever heard her so angry.

"I didn't mean to—" Andrea tried to defend herself, but Caterina raised her hand to silence her.

"Save it," she almost growled. "I don't want to hear any excuses."

"She was just trying to help," Dale said in Andrea's defense.

"Yes, and she almost killed Daryl," Caterina snapped before turning her hard gaze back on Andrea. "I suggest that you think over your actions very carefully from here on out."

With that, Caterina turned and stormed off to the campsite.

* * *

Caterina sat on the log near her tent, twirling a small twig in her fingers as she stared blankly at the ground in front of her. She was the only one outside now. Everyone else was still inside Hershel's house. It had already grown dark, but Caterina couldn't bring herself to go join the others. She was still upset about what had happened to Daryl. Not to mention her guilt over what she said to Andrea. She couldn't bring herself to forgive Andrea for shooting Daryl, but she _was_ sorry about threatening her like she had. It had been way over the line.

"Caterina?" a familiar voice called out wearily.

She looked over her shoulder at Dale.

"Carol sent me to fetch you for dinner," he explained with that kind of smile of his.

Caterina turned back to stare at the ground. "Tell her I'm sorry, but I'm not really that hungry," she muttered just loud enough for Dale to hear her.

Dale was silent for a moment before he walked up behind Caterina. He sat down on the log so that he was facing the opposite way and leaned back slightly so he could look at her a bit more easily. "I know you're worried about Daryl, but Hershel says he'll be fine," he reminded her.

"Yeah, I know." She looked at Dale from the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry I went off on Andrea."

He smiled understandingly. "I know. You were just upset. Andrea understands that too."

"I'm _not_ sorry for what I said though," she added.

His smile turned slightly sad, but he nodded. "I know…" He clapped Caterina on the shoulder and stood back up. "Now, come on. They went through all the trouble of making us this meal. It would hurt their feelings if you didn't join us."

Caterina sighed and tossed the twig as she stood up. She followed back up to the house and into the dining room where the others were already sitting down to eat—minus Daryl, of course, but she had already guessed that he would be condemned to that bed for a few nights.

Everyone looked up as the two entered, their eyes instantly turning on Caterina.

"Hey," Rick greeted lightly.

"Hey," Caterina replied as she turned her gaze on Andrea. She stared at her before nodding, in lieu of outright apologizing to her. But Andrea seemed to understand, as she smiled and nodded back. She grabbed an empty plate next to her hand held it out for her. Caterina took it with a small smile before she started to walk over to the wall.

Rick saw this and stood up. "Here, you can have my seat," he offered.

"That's all right."

"Come on. I insist."

"Rick," Caterina said sternly, causing Rick to blink at her. "It's all right," she assured him.

Rick stared at her before nodding and lowering himself back down in his chair hesitantly. Caterina settled against the wall behind Hershel to eat. Everyone followed her example, and a heavy silence fell over them as they indulged themselves on the food that Carol, Lori, and Hershel's people had made them.

"Does anybody know how to play guitar?" Glenn spoke up after a while. "Dale found a cool one. Somebody's gotta know how to play."

"Otis did," Patricia said.

"Yes," Hershel agreed, "and he was very good too."

A more awkward silence fell over them again. Caterina looked over at where Shane was sitting. He glanced up at her at the same moment, and they stared at each other. Caterina was the one to break it as she turned back to her plate.

Caterina had just finished her plate when Carol stood up from her place at the end of the table. She grabbed her empty plate and disappeared into the kitchen only to return a moment later carrying a tray of food. She placed her untouched glass of wine and placed it on the tray before she nodded to Caterina.

"Could you take this up to Daryl for me?" Carol asked.

"Sure…" Caterina muttered. She walked around the table to where Carol stood and placed her plate down on the table before taking the tray from her.

"And, while you're up there, could you tell him thanks for me?"

Caterina nodded.

She traversed the stairs carefully, ever mindful of the glass of wine. The last thing that she wanted to do was stain Hershel's stairs.

Once she had reached the door leading into Daryl's temporary room, Caterina adjusted the tray so it was balanced on her open palm and reached for the doorknob. She paused, however, before her hand could make contact with the polished brass. What if Daryl was asleep? She didn't want to wake him up, possibly angrying him. But, then again, someone would have to wake him up to make sure that he ate. After everything that he had been through, he needed some food to help him regain his strength.

Caterina rolled her eyes at her unnecessary worry and opened the door.

Daryl looked over his shoulder as the door opened, and he tensed when he saw Caterina standing in the doorway with a tray of food. He quickly pulled the sheets up so that it covered his torso, his face red. Caterina was tempted to tease him about him suddenly being embarrassed about her seeing him shirtless when she'd been in the room when Rick removed his shirt so that Hershel could tend to his wound, but she decided against it.

"How are you feeling?" Caterina asked as she placed the tray on the bedside table.

"About as good as I look," Daryl replied.

She couldn't help the smile that spread across her lips at his response. "It's good to see you haven't lost your sense of humor." She nodded to the tray. "I brought you some dinner. Carol that you might be starving."

Daryl looked at the tray on the nightstand, but he didn't move to reach for it. Instead, he just looked up at Caterina before rolling back over in the bed so that his back was facing her.

Caterina frowned, but she didn't say anything of it. "Carol also wanted me to thank you for what you did," she said instead.

"I didn't do anything Rick or Shane wouldn't of done," Daryl muttered.

"I know. So does Carol. But that doesn't make what you did any less noble."

Daryl didn't say anything.

Caterina stared down at him, curled up under the thin sheet, thinking about everything that Lori had said earlier that evening. With the way that Daryl was acting now, she doubted even more than before that he had any sort of feelings for her. Still, maybe it would be best for her to at least bring it up, if not to just get rid of some of this awkwardness.

She crossed her arms as she turned her gaze to the carpet. "Listen, Daryl…" she started. She heard Daryl shift in the bed and assumed that he had turned to look at her, but she didn't look up. "About yesterday…when we were looking for Sophia…"

"I thought you wanted to pretend that didn't happen," Daryl sneered cynically.

Caterina looked up only to frown at him. "I didn't," she admitted. "I just thought it was what _you_ wanted."

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Well, maybe if you'd let me get a word in before you went jumpin' to conclusions, you'd've known better than that."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Then what were you going to say?"

Daryl looked away from her anxiously before he turned back over so that he wasn't looking at her anymore. "Don't matter now, does it?" he grunted before adding dismissively, "Thanks for the food."

Caterina blinked. Why did she suddenly have a feeling that maybe Daryl _did_ feel something towards her beyond just attraction?

She felt a burst of courage building up in her stomach, and Caterina reached out to grab Daryl's shoulder. He tensed at her touch, but he allowed her roll him onto his back. He frowned up at her in apprehension, and she felt her courage start to dwindle. Still, she managed to gather herself, and she leaned down to press her lips to his.

For a moment, Daryl remained completely still beneath her. Then, just as she was about to pull away, his lips moved slightly against hers. She could feel the pressure of his lips pressing back against hers, and her heart skipped a beat at the feeling.

Caterina pulled away, and Daryl moved as it to follow her but stopped himself as he stared up at her in silent surprise.

"I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions. I'll try to remember that you actually have a mind of your own next time," she teased.

Daryl opened his mouth to say something but couldn't seem to get it out.

"Eat," Caterina ordered him lightly. "Then get some rest. You've had a long day."

With that, she gave him one last peck before she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. As soon as it was closed, she leaned back against it with a sigh. She raised a shaky hand to her lips, which were still tingling from the kiss. It hadn't been much longer than the last one, but somehow it had meant more. She was the one to initiate, and Daryl had been the one to respond. Surely that meant he harbored some feelings for her.

Caterina smiled to herself. Maybe this meant that something _could_ develop between them.


	20. Chapter 19

Hey, all! I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to update. I've been having finals all week, and then there was a snow storm so all my finals were moved to next week so I've been studying extra for them. But I'll be done on the 12th so I can focus on finishing this story! I'm not sure how many more chapters there will be until the end, but I'm thinking it's getting pretty close. BUT I want to make a sequel, maybe bring in Caterina's family (or at least part of it). What do you guys think?

Also, I'm sorry that this doesn't have my usual quality. I haven't written anything in a while, so I'm having to get back into the swing of it.

* * *

It usually doesn't take much to wake up Caterina. She would wake to the sound of a pen dropping. But, when she woke that morning, she woke to the sounds of the others bustling around camp. It wasn't the usual, we-just-woke-up bustling; it sounded like everyone had been awake for a while now and was winding down from their early morning routines.

Caterina crawled out of her makeshift bed of blankets and changed into a pair of faded blue jeans and a gray tank top. Once she had her buck knife strapped to her waist, she climbed out of her tent.

She couldn't quite tell what time it was, but she was pretty sure that she'd missed her usual waking up by a few hours. Only Dale, Carol, and Glenn were around camp; the others were off God knows where, probably getting started on whatever chores they had for the day.

"Good morning," Dale greeted as he approached, his ever present Remington 700 VLS strapped to his shoulder.

"Morning," Caterina returned. "How long was I asleep?"

"Quite a while. Everyone else has been up for a few hours now."

She frowned at that. "Why didn't anyone wake me?" she demanded. She hated knowing that she had left everyone to do their morning chores by themselves. Usually, she tried to help as many people as she could, even if it meant helping out with the laundry. Granted, she didn't help for long. As soon as Rick gathered everyone to get the day started, she let them to finish on their owns. But at least she helped them get a headway on it.

"Well, we figured you could use a bit of rest after everything that happened yesterday," Dale replied honestly. "And, uh, I guess we were right, since you didn't wake up with the rest of us like usual." He seemed to spot something over Caterina's shoulder then, and he smiled. "Speaking of waking up…"

Caterina turned to see what had caught Dale's eye and was pleasantly surprised to see Carl walking across the yard, Lori close at his shoulder. Carl seemed to meet Caterina's gaze, and his lips spread into a wide grin before he took off running towards her, ignoring the protests of his mother as she shouted after him.

"Cat!" the boy cried out happily.

Caterina grunted as he rammed into her stomach, knocking the breath out of her as he latched onto her waist as if he hadn't seen her in years rather than a few days. "Hey, kid," she gasped. "Looks like someone has their strength back."

Carl pulled away to smile up at her a bit sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, kiddo," she laughed before looking up at Lori as she joined them. "Morning," she greeted her.

"Hey," Lori replied. "How'd you sleep?"

"Pretty well, apparently. How's Daryl?" she asked. She couldn't help but worry about her favorite hick (for lack of a better word). After taking that arrow to his side yesterday and being grazed by a bullet from her least favorite trigger-happy blonde, he had the second worst injuries in the group. It seemed like they were having a bout of bad luck. Hopefully, it wouldn't end with one of their own dead.

…Why did it suddenly feel that she'd just jinxed everyone?

Lori smiled knowingly, something that made Caterina uncomfortable for some unknown reason. "He's better," she assured her. "Hershel let him move to his tent a few hours ago. He says that he'll have to keep off his feet for a while though, so he's been confined to his bed."

"I bet he's not happy about that," she chuckled.

"Of course not," Lori laughed. "But, surprisingly, he's been doing as Hershel said so far. Speaking of, Hershel's waiting for you up in the house."

Caterina nodded in understanding and ruffled Carl's hair playfully. "I'll talk to you later, kid," she said as she started towards the farmhouse. "It's great to have you back," she called back over her shoulder, earning a grin from Carl and a grateful smile from his mother.

Rick was waiting for her on the porch, leaning on the railing next to the stairs. "Morning," he called as she neared the house.

"Morning," Caterina replied. "I figured you'd be out searching by now."

"We're gonna forgo the search for a bit, give people the gun trainin' we've been promisin' 'em. I don't suppose you'd be interested in goin' with us?" he asked, although it seemed that he already knew the answer.

"A bunch of untrained gunmen shooting at tin cans set up on a fence? Why would I want to miss that?" she gasped with faux excitement.

Rick smiled in amusement. "A simple no would've sufficed."

"Oh, we both know I'm not simple."

He chuckled as he pushed away from the railing. He motioned for Caterina to follow as he walked to the front door. "Come on. Hershel's waitin' for you," he reminded her before he lead Caterina into the kitchen, where Hershel was waiting by the kitchen table with a fresh role of bandages.

"Morning, Hershel," Caterina said.

"Good morning. How's your arm?" Hershel asked.

"Better, I think. It's not throbbing nearly as much as it was."

"That's good to hear. Have a seat and I'll take a look."

Caterina sat down as she was instructed, and Hershel pulled up a chair next to her before he set to work unwrapping her arm. Once he had the bandages off, he placed the soiled roll on the table next to the fresh bundle and grabbed her arm so that he could bring it closer to his face to examine it. Caterina looked down at her arm as well. It looked like the redness had gone considerably, and it wasn't as swollen as it had been. Hershel gently ran his finger along the outside of her wounds, apparently feeling the temperature of the skin around them.

"Well, you were right," Hershel said after a moment. "The infection has improved."

"Does that mean she's off medical leave?" Rick asked, leaning on the back of Caterina's chair.

"I don't see why not," he replied as he set to work wrapping Caterina's bicep. "But we might wanna keep dressing your arm, just until your wounds have closed," he said to Caterina. "We don't want any more bacteria getting in and infecting it again."

"Of course," Caterina agreed. "Thank you, Hershel."

"No need to thank me. Just be careful."

"I'll try my best," she said truthfully as she stood up.

"That's all I can ask for," Hershel said with a good-natured smile. He seemed to know already that Caterina wasn't the overly cautious type.

Caterina gave him a mischievous grin before following Rick back out of the house. She was beyond ecstatic knowing that she wouldn't be confined to the camp now that her arm seemed to be healing. It would be about a week before it completely healed but, as long as she kept it cleaned and wrapped up, there shouldn't be any problems.

"So I guess you're back in the game," Rick pointed out.

"Thank God," she sighed heavily. "You have no idea how horrible yesterday was."

"Oh, I think I can guess," he muttered. "I take it this means you're gonna want to go out searchin' today?

"Yeah, I was thinking I could pick up where Daryl left off and go from there while you and Shane are out taking the others out for their training," she offered somewhat offhandedly. She was trying to act as if it wasn't a big deal for her to go off on her own to look for Sophia, but she already knew that Rick wouldn't see it as such, not after what happened to Daryl. He probably didn't want anyone going anywhere on their own, even if it meant covering more ground.

As expected, Rick stopped walking and held his hand out in front of Caterina to make her stop as well. "No way," he argued forcefully. "I don't want you goin' out there alone, not after what happened to Daryl."

"What happened to Daryl was an accident," Caterina pointed out.

"Cat—"

"Rick," Caterina interrupted him, much as she had yesterday when he'd tried to offer up his seat. "I'm going."

Rick sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "I just don't want you to get hurt. Again."

"And I appreciate your concerns, but I'll be fine. I promise," she said with a smile. She sighed when he just continued to stare at her, not convinced. "I'll tell you what. Let me run this by Daryl. If he doesn't want me to go, I won't. I'll stay and hold down the fort while you're gone."

The corners of Rick's lips twitched into a smile, which Caterina didn't quite understand. It was as if he knew something that she didn't and was relishing in the fact. "All right," he agreed. "If Daryl doesn't like the idea, you'll stay here until I'm finished with gun training, then we can go out and search for Sophia as long as you want," he offered.

Caterina nodded in agreement before walking back to the camp.

Glenn looked up from his spot by the fire as Caterina returned to the campsite. There was a large basket set at his feet, with a bushel of peaches and several slices of jerky. As she neared him, Glenn snatched up one of the peaches and a slice of jerky and stepped forward to meet her. "Hey," he greeted her.

"Hey. What's all this?" Caterina asked, nodding to the basket.

Glenn glanced down at the basket and shrugged. "Maggie gave me some peaches and jerky to hand out to everyone," he muttered.

"Well, that was nice of her. What's the occasion?"

"No reason," he said a little quickly. "She just…wanted to be nice," he finished lamely. Even he knew that it was a horrible lie.

Caterina stared at him. He looked very anxious now as he shuffled his feet, refusing to met Caterina's gaze. It was obvious that he wanted to tell her something, but whatever it was that he wanted to say was apparently important if Maggie had given him the fruit and jerky in exchange for his silence. At least, that's what Caterina felt had happened. Otherwise, she was pretty sure that Glenn would be spilling whatever it was that he wanted to say without any worry.

"Right…" she muttered after a moment, deciding to accept the lie for now. If it was really important, Glenn would end up telling someone eventually.

"Are you on your way to visit Daryl?" Glenn asked, trying to change the topic. When Caterina nodded, he thrust the peach and jerky into her hands with a muttered, "Here," before he bent back down and grabbed another peach and slab of jerky. He placed them in Caterina's arm along with the others. "Take his share then. I have a feeling he'd appreciate it coming from you more than he would from me."

Caterina rolled her eyes at that, but decided not to ignore it. Instead, she thanked him and continued over to Daryl's tent.

The flap was already opened, indicating that Daryl didn't mind company. So she poked her head inside. Daryl was lying on his camp bed, reading a fairly old and worn out book. She couldn't help but smirk at the sight of him laid up in bed with a novel. With how Daryl liked to present himself, she didn't think he would be the type to willingly read a book, especially not a book titled The Case of the Missing Man.

"Isn't that Dale's book?" she asked in lieu of announcing herself.

Daryl almost dropped the book at the sound of her voice, causing Caterina's smirk to widen. He closed the novel and placed it on the makeshift nightstand next to his camp bed. "Hell if I know," he muttered. "Andrea gave it to me."

Caterina walked into the tent, over to the nightstand, and grabbed the book. She turned it over so that she could glance over the back and cover pages. "Looks like a real page turner."

"It's borin' as hell, but it ain't like I got nothin' better to do since I'm stuck here in bed for God knows how long," Daryl muttered.

"How're you feeling by the way?" she asked as she placed the book back on the stand.

"Like death warmed over."

Caterina looked him over. He did look a bit pale, and there was a line of fresh blood on his forehead, dripping down to his temple. He had apparently decided not to keep his head bandaged, allowing the cut on his forehead to bleed freely. "Yeah, you look it," she pointed out.

Daryl snorted. "Thanks," he said sarcastically.

"You're the one who asked," she chuckled as she looked around for a clean rag.

She spotted one on the second camp bed next to Daryl's, and she grabbed it after putting the food in her arms on the cot. She knelt down at Daryl's bedside, ignoring his confused expression, and reached out to wipe the blood from his forehead. He flinched away as soon as the rag touched his skin, but it seemed to be more of a reflex more than a desire not to be touched, since he didn't move away again as she pressed the rag to his temple. She kept her eyes focused on her hands as she gently wiped away the blood. She could feel Daryl's eyes on the side of her face, but she was admittedly afraid to meet his gaze just yet.

Once she'd wiped as much of the blood off as she could, Caterina leaned back as it to admire her work. "There," she said as she tossed the rag back onto the bed.

"Thanks…" Daryl muttered somewhat abashedly.

Caterina forced herself to look Daryl fully in the face, and she couldn't help but smirk when she saw how red his face was. He was even avoiding her gaze, instead staring at the ceiling of the tent.

Instead of teasing him as she wanted (mostly because she wanted to be in his good graces since she needed his approval to go out and look for Sophia), she grabbed the second share of food from the bed and tossed them to Daryl, who caught them pretty easily, despite the hole in his side. "Eat," she instructed simply.

"What's with you and feedin' me?" Daryl wondered.

"Someone's gotta do it, otherwise you'd never eat."

Daryl didn't argue against that. Instead, he just shifted in his bed so that he was sitting up a little bit straighter so he could take a bite of the peach. Caterina watched him for a moment before going to sit down on the second camp bed with her share. In all honesty, she hadn't intended on eating any of it. She wasn't really that hungry (which was kind of surprising since the most she had eaten in the past week was the meal that Carol and the other women made yesterday), so she was just going to leave it for Daryl or anyone else who wanted it.

"Listen, I was thinking about going out and picking up on the search for Sophia," Caterina said, deciding to cut straight to the chase.

He paused before he could take another bite to stare at Caterina with a calculative look on his face. "You think that's a good idea?" he asked.

"You went out by yourself."

He scoffed. "Yeah, and look how well that turned out."

Caterina shrugged, deciding not to comment on that.

Daryl took another bite of the peach. "What did Rick say?" he asked around the bite.

Caterina lowered her gaze to her lap as she grabbed her peach and started tossing it between her hands. "He doesn't think I should go. I told him I'd run it by you first and we made a deal that, if you don't want me to, I won't go."

"What does my opinion matter?"

She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. "It's the only one that matters."

Daryl stared at her, as if he didn't quite believe her. It took everything that she had not to look away from him. He needed to know how much he meant to her, even if she wasn't able to say it outright or even explain it. Honestly, she didn't know if she would ever be able to tell him anything about how she felt. She wasn't exactly the emotional type, nor was she any good with expressing feelings through words. Hell, she wasn't even good with expressing her feelings through her actions. Any time that she was able to do so, she either did it out of instinct or she acted as she thought was expected of her.

"…Why?" Daryl asked after what felt like hours of staring at one another. Caterina didn't need to ask to know what he meant, but that didn't mean that she was able to answer him.

In all honesty, she didn't know why it was Daryl that she had these feelings for. He was crude, insulting, distant, reckless. Sure, he was also smart and caring and compassionate, but he often kept that hidden beneath those stereotypical redneck qualities of his. But that was probably what drew Caterina to him the most. He was just like her, hiding behind a stereotype just because it's easier than letting people see the real you.

"I don't know," she finally said as she lowered her gaze to her lap again. "It just does."

She could feel Daryl staring at her still, but she didn't dare look up.

"…You can take my brother's bike."

Caterina looked up at him. He was no longer staring at her; instead, he was staring at the half eaten peach in his hand.

She smiled. "Thank you, Daryl," she said. She stood up and started to leave the tent. She was stopped, however, before she could step out of the opening by Daryl called after her.

"Hey."

She turned to look at him. When she saw something flying in the air towards her, she raised up her hand to catch it. She blinked as she saw that it was the keys to Merle's motorbike.

"Be careful."

She looked up at him and smiled slightly. "I'll be back before nightfall," she promised.

When Caterina finally left Daryl's tent, Rick was standing by T-Dog's van, peering over the map. He turned as Caterina walked up behind him, the key to Daryl's motorbike clutched in her hand. "Cat," he greeted. "So what's the verdict?"

"He's lent me his brother's motorcycle."

He sighed, almost as if he were disappointed. "All right, a deal's a deal," he said, although it seemed that he didn't want to give in so easily. "We figured the best place to search would be a housing development just a few miles up this road here," he said, motioning to a road on the map. "If Sophia found her way there, it's a good bet she might be holed up there now."

Caterina nodded. "Okay. I'll head up there once I have everything together."

He nodded. "Shane and another person from the group will join you after gun practice so you won't have to spend the whole time out there by yourself."

She smiled, admittedly touched by his persistence. "All right."

"Rick," Shane called out, pulling both Rick's and Caterina's gaze to him. He was standing by the RV with Carl. "Come over here a sec?"

Rick and Caterina exchanged looks before they both walked over to him along with Lori.

"What's up?" Rick asked.

Shane looked down at Carl and motioned for him, as if silently asking him to do something. Carl was hesitant before he pulled one of Rick's handguns from behind his back. Lori's eyes widened in horror when she saw it.

"Where did you get this?" Lori demanded.

"I took it from dad's bag," Carl admitted.

Lori grabbed Carl's arm. "Get over here," she snapped as she dragged Carl over to the picnic table, away from the adults. She sat him down on the bench and took the gun from him. She opened the chamber to check it for bullets. She slammed it closed and tucked it into the back of her pants as she walked back over to where the others were standing, Dale having joined them. "How the hell did this happen?"

"Well, it's my fault," Dale said. "I let him into the RV. He said he wanted a walkie, that you'd sent him for one," he added, nodding to Rick.

"So, on top of everything else, he lied," Lori said. "What's he thinking?" she whispered to Rick.

Rick shook his head, not having an answer.

"He wants to learn how to shoot," Shane answered for him. "He asked me to teach him. Now, it's none of my business, but I'm happy to do it. It's your call."

"Well, I'm not comfortable with it," Lori said.

Everyone just looked at her. It seemed that they all were thinking around the same lines. It actually made sense that Carl learn his way around a gun, especially if he was going to survive in the zombie apocalypse. He needed to be able to protect himself. There wouldn't always be adults around him to protect him.

"Oh, don't make me out to be the unreasonable one here," Lori scoffed before looking to her husband for help. "Rick?"

"Oh, I know," Rick said. "I have my concerns too, but—"

"There's no but," she interrupted. "He was just shot. He's just back on his feet and he wants a gun?"

"Better than him bein' afraid of 'em. There are guns in camp for a reason. He should learn how to handle 'em safely."

"I don't want my kid walking around with a gun."

"But how can you defend that? You can't let him go around without protection."

"He's as safe as he'll ever be right here," Lori defended herself. When Rick didn't seem convinced, she continued. "Look, everything you're saying makes perfect sense, but it feels wrong. I eman, I didn't feel good about him following you into the woods, and I wish I'd said something. I should've gone with my gut."

"He's growin' up, thank God," Rick said. "We've gotta start treatin' him more like an adult."

"Then he needs to act like one," Lori said. Rick started to argue, but Lori spoke over him, looking pointedly at her son to emphasize her words. "He's not mature enough to handle a gun."

It seemed that Carl had had enough, because he stood up and walked over to the group of adults. "I'm not gonna play with it, mom," he tried to convince his mother. "I'm sorry I disappointed you, but I wanna look for Sophia and I want to defend our camp. I can't do that without a gun."

"Seems pretty mature to me," Caterina said. She looked at Carl from the corner of here eye and winked at him, earning a thankful smile from the kid.

"Shane's the best instructor I know," Rick assured his wife. "I've seen him teach kids younger than Carl."

The couple looked over at Shane before looking at each other again. They stared at each other for long moment as Lori thought over everything that had been said.

Lori stepped away from her husband to walk over to her son, gripping his chin in her hand gently so she can raise to force him to look her in the eye. "You will take this seriously, and you will behave responsibly," Lori instructed. "And if I hear from anyone in this camp that you aren't living up to our expectantions—"

"He won't let you down," Rick said in his son's defense, looking pointedly at his son.

Carl nodded. "Yeah," he agreed.

Lori nodded in satisfaction and released her son's chin before turning to look at Caterina. "Could we talk?" she asked.

Caterina blinked, a bit thrown by the randomness of it. "Yeah, sure," she said. She followed Lori from the camp. She didn't stop until they were far enough away that they didn't have to worry about anyone eavesdropping on them. "What's up?" she asked.

"I just…I wanted your opinion on something," Lori said.

She nodded, still confused. "All right."

"It's about the baby."

Her confusion cleared as she realized what Lori wanted to ask. "You want to know if I think you should keep it."

"Do you?"

"My opinion doesn't matter here," she pointed out. "It's your decision to make." When Lori looked down almost in disappointment, she went on. "But…if it were me in your situations, I'd seriously consider keeping it."

"Even if it meant condemning it to a life of pain? And fear?"

"You can't know what kind of life it would have," she pointed out.

Lori didn't say anything. Instead, she stared at the ground for a moment. "Do you think this baby might have a chance?" she asked determinedly.

"I don't know," she admitted. "There are too many uncertainties. All I do know is, if you decide to keep it, every single person in this group will do everything in their power to make sure it grows up as normally and as happily as possible."

Lori smiled at that. "Thank you." She started to walk away, but Caterina called after her.

"Lori?" she called, causing her to stop and turn around. "I already said that it isn't my decision to make…but it is every bit as much Rick's decision as it is yours. You need to tell him—everything."

Lori stared at her for a long moment before nodding.

* * *

Once Caterina had everything ready—her handgun tucked into the back of her pants, both of her knives strapped to her waist and thigh, and her crossbow slung over her shoulder—she drove to where Rick had pointed out the housing development. She stopped a mile outside of the neighborhood and parked the motorbike in a slightly grassy area on the side of the road. While the bike was useful to maneuver around difficult areas, the engine was too loud. If she wanted everything to go smoothly, she couldn't ride the bike into the development. It would draw too much attention.

So she went the last mile on foot, her crossbow held at the ready. She made sure to keep her footfalls silent, in case there were any walkers nearby.

The neighborhood was pretty quiet. She could see a few walkers meandering around, but it wasn't enough to really worry about. She was easily able to move her way around without any of them seeing or hearing her.

She had gone through seven houses by the time Shane arrived. She spotted him through an upstairs window in the seventh house, and she carefully made her way back down the stairs and out the door to meet him. She paused when she saw Andrea climb out of the passenger side of Shane's car. She made sure not to express her distaste on her face. She still hadn't completely forgiven Andrea for shooting Daryl. Not to mention how irritating it was that she always wanted to prove herself to be one of the boys, to be able to protect herself and the camp. Admittedly, Andrea did have some potential, but she was too cocky and way too eager to prove herself for Caterina's taste.

"Hey," Shane greeted. "We got kinda worried when we saw Daryl's bike parked a mile back."

"I didn't wanna drive it into the neighborhood, risk drawing any walkers to me," Caterina explained.

He nodded, seeing the logic in it. "So how's it been?"

"Pretty quiet. I haven't run into very many walkers. A few here and there, but nothing that I couldn't handle. Still, that doesn't mean we should let our guards down."

"What about Sophia?" Andrea asked. "Any sign of her?"

"Nothing concrete," Caterina said. From what she'd observed from the few houses that she'd checked on her own, it seemed that a lot of people had holed up in their homes in an attempt to ride everything out. A lot of the homes had apparently gotten overrun, leaving no survivors. If Sophia had indeed made it to this neighborhood, it would be difficult to determine.

"Which houses have you searched so far?" Shane asked.

Caterina motioned to the line of seven houses across the street that she had already searched. "Just those there. I have still got the rest on this side," she said, nodding to the other side of the street. "I didn't wanna go in recklessly while it was just me out there so I've been trying to take things slow."

Shane nodded. "Well, now that we're here, how 'bout we start off at the far end and we work our way back?" he suggested. "Skip the houses you've already searched?"

She nodded."Sounds good to me."

With that, the three of them started towards the house at the far end of the street that they were on.

"If Sophia got this far, she has a real shot, don't you think?" Andrea asked.

Neither Shane nor Caterina said anything. While she did hope that Sophia had made it to this area and they would find her there, Caterina wasn't too confident that they would. It would've taken a miracle for Sophia to have made it out of the forest. Caterina wanted so badly to believe they would find her, and she had successfully deluded herself into thinking that Sophia was still alive. But the more logical part of her knew that the chances were slim to none.

They crept into the furthest house, weapons drawn as they went from room-to-room.

"Sophia?" Andrea called out as they cleared the first floor.

The three moved around the kitchen to where there was supposed to be another hall and paused as they saw a pull-away wall set up in the archway. It looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to the plaster, creating a hole just large enough for an average sized adult to squeeze through. But it was pretty obvious that it had actually been either a corpse or a badly wounded survivor that had created the hole, since the edge was covered in blood.

"They walled off the hallway?"

"They tried to make a stand here," Shane observed.

Caterina went first, crouching through the hole, with Shane and Andrea behind her. Once they were through, they moved on further into the house, checking each and every room. She found a pile of corpses in the room at the end of the hall upstairs, and her hope for finding Sophia alive just seemed to dwindle even further.

"Sophia?" Andrea called again as they slowly made their way downstairs to where the garage was.

Caterina kicked down a pile of random utilities packed at the bottom of the stairs. She stepped over them and paused as a rank scent hit her. She glanced back at the others cautiously before moving towards the smell, which was coming from the garage. She motioned for the others to get ready and kicked the door open. She was very much surprised to find that someone had tried to burn the garage down along with a dozen or so corpses.

She lowered her crossbow as she moved through the mess. Shane followed while Andrea stopped to stare at the corpses, the back of her hand pressed to her mouth.

"She was never here, was she?" Andrea said as she squatted down. "I don't know how to tell Carol this was another dead end."

Before anyone could respond, Caterina heard the snarling of walkers outside. She squatted down to look under the half-open door of the garage, and she saw over a dozen pairs of feet shuffling towards them. She cursed to herself before turning to the others and motioning for them to move back into the house.

They made their way back through the house. They raised their weapons as they stepped out of the front door. It looked like a horde had just passed into town and had somehow discovered that they were there in that particular house.

There were a few walkers around Shane's car, preventing an easy escape.

"You two cover that street," Shane ordered, nodding to the street in front of them. "I'll clear the car."

Caterina and Andrea obediently started shooting the walkers coming up the street while Shane shot the walkers around the car. Andrea had only popped off three rounds when she pulled the trigger of her gun only for the hammer to click but not fire. Caterina couldn't help but roll her eyes. That was just what they needed, a jammed gun.

"Oh, shit," Andrea cursed. She tried to fix the jam while Shane joined Caterina in shooting the oncoming walkers.

"Focus now," Shane said. "Clear the jam. Focus."

There was a walker getting a bit too close for comfort, and Caterina raised her gun to shoot, but Shane motioned for her to lower her weapon. She hesitated, but she did as he said.

Andrea finally cleared the jam, and she looked up at the walker. She looked at the others dubiously. "Are you kidding me?" she snapped.

"We got your back," Shane assured her. "Now go."

Andrea shot the walker between the eyes before she paused to calm herself. When she resumed shooting, she seemed much more relaxed and focused. Now that she wasn't worried about missing the shots or somehow embarrassing herself, she was a much better shot. It was fairly impressive.

"Andrea, Cat, let's go," Shane called once he'd cleared the car. "Come on."

Andrea and Caterina followed Shane over to the car. He opened the driver side door while Caterina went to the passenger side, but Andrea paused in front of the car and aimed at the oncoming walkers.

"Andrea, come on."

Andrea didn't listen. She just continued to fire unnecessarily at the walkers.

Caterina rolled her eyes and went around the car, grabbing Andrea's shoulder and pulling her out of whatever daze she had been in. "Let's go," she said forcefully before dragging Andrea around to the passenger side and ushering her in. She climbed into the back so that Caterina could slide into the passenger seat. Shane got in as well and started backing up down the street that they had driven up. He spun the car around and sped off.

He didn't slow down until they had successfully made it out of the neighborhood, and everyone sighed in relief.

"How did they know where we were?" Andrea asked.

"They must've heard us talking," Caterina said. "Or they might have spotted us going into the house and we didn't notice them."

"Either way, that was a close call," Shane said.

"Agreed."

"It might be best if we didn't go there again. It's a dead end anyway."

Caterina nodded, but she didn't say anything.

* * *

After Shane dropped Caterina by Daryl's motorcycle, she had taken a few back roads just in case any walkers from the horde back at the housing development heard her. When she got back to camp, she'd expected to see Shane and Andrea already back and talking with Carol, but she couldn't see Shane's car anywhere. She worried for a brief moment that they had somehow gotten overrun on their way back, but that didn't really seem likely. She hadn't seen any walkers on her way back to camp, so it was unlikely that they would've run into any.

So, after informing Carol of their failure and assuring her that they would try again tomorrow, Caterina settled against a tree near the RV an set to cleaning her handgun.

It was almost twenty minutes before she heard a car pulling up. She glanced around the trunk of the tree and was relieved when she saw Shane and Andrea stepping out of the Hyundai Tyson.

"Anything?" Carol asked from the RV door.

"Not today," Shane replied.

"I'm so sorry," Andrea said. "We'll cover more ground tomorrow."

"What happened out there?" Dale asked.

"Um, I…" She paused, glancing at Shane.

"The place was overrun," Shane answered for her.

"The place was overrun," she repeated in agreement.

Caterina frowned slightly as she looked between the two. They kept exchanging odd looks, and she got a feeling that they were hiding something. But she also felt like she really didn't want to know what that was.

Carol walked over to Andrea. "Let's go get you cleaned up," she suggested as she led her away.

Shane watched them go before he started to walk off as well.

Dale stepped after him. "Shane?" he called. "Shane," he called again when Shane didn't stop.

Shane sighed but turned to look at Dale curiously.

"I was thinking, you've got that nice new ride of yours, plenty of fuel. More than enough for you to get far from here."

"What, you tellin' me to leave?" Shane scoffed.

"I know you've been planning to. Maybe now is a good time."

Shane laughed in disbelief. "Is this about Andrea?"

"I'm looking out for the group," Dale argued.

He paused, staring at Dale calculatingly. "You think the group would be better off without _me_, Dale? Why don't you tell that to Rick, or Lori? Their boy would be dead if I hadn't put my ass on the line."

"And Otis's," he said.

Shane scoffed, looking away.

"Yeah, you've been vague about that night, about what happened."

"Otis died a hero."

"So you've said."

"A little boy lived because of what went down that night. I think you oughta show some gratitude."

"I wasn't there," Dale started.

"No, man, you weren't."

"But I was the time you raised your gun on Rick. You had him in your sights, and you held him there."

Caterina frowned while Shane sighed heavily.

"I know what kind of man you are," Dale said lowly.

"You think I'd shoot Rick?" Shane asked. "That is my best friend. That's the man that I love. I love him as if he's my brother. You think that's the kind of man I am?"

"That's right," he said confidently.

Shane stepped toward Dale. "Well, maybe you oughta just think that through," he said in a lower voice. "Say I'm the kinda man who'd gun down his own best friend. What do you think I'd do to some guy that I don't even like when he starts throwin' accusations my way?" he threatened. "What do you think?"

When Dale didn't say anything, Shane scoffed and started to walk away. He paused, however, as he spotted Caterina standing behind the tree from the corner of his eye. He stopped to give her the most dangerous glare he could muster, apparently hoping to intimidate her into staying silent. But Caterina had encountered a lot of dangerous men, men who offered more of a threat than Shane ever could. His glare didn't scare her. Instead, she just met his gaze coolly.

It was Shane who turned away first, looking a bit miffed.

Caterina watched him go before she pushed away from the tree and walked over to Dale, who she noticed was shaking. "You all right?" she asked.

Dale nodded shakily.

She sighed. "That was very stupid of you, Dale."

"You heard all that, right?" he asked hopefully, seeming to calm down slightly.

She nodded. "Yeah, I heard. You're on Shane's number one enemy list now."

"I guess that look means you are now too."

She scoffed. "I'm pretty sure I've been on that list since the CDC."

Dale frowned, confused. "What happened at the CDC?"

"I caught him trying to rape Lori."

His eyes widened in horror. "What?"

"Don't worry, I stepped in before he could do anything," she assured him. "But I want to talk about what you said. You said that you saw Shane aiming a gun at Rick?" she asked.

Dale nodded. "The day that we left the oasis."

Caterina sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "This isn't good. He's worse off than I had hoped," she mused. "If Shane's been this unstable since then, it's possible that it all started when Rick and I joined the group."

"What are we gonna do?" Dale questioned.

"_We_ aren't going to do anything," she stressed. "You've already pissed him off enough. For now, just keep your head down."

"Then what are _you_ going to do. Are you gonna tell Rick?"

"Not yet. First, I need proof that Shane isn't stable enough to be trusted."

"How are you gonna get that?"

"Otis."

"Otis?" he asked, confused. But then his face cleared as he realized what she meant. "You don't mean…"

Caterina nodded. "I do. I'll have to go up to the high school tomorrow and find Otis's body."

"But he'd be nothing but bones by now, if what Shane said was true."

"That is a strong possibility," she agreed, "but there might be enough of him left for me to get the evidence that I need. Besides, if there's not, there's another way that I can hopefully prove what Shane did. You must've noticed that bald patch on Shane's head."

"You think Otis might've pulled some out when he went down," he stated more than asked.

Caterina nodded.

"But how're you gonna prove that it's Shane's?"

"I can't, not without a DNA test, and I'm pretty sure that's out of the question."

"Then how?"

"Rick will just have to take it on faith."

"I don't think he'll be happy with you accusing his best friend of wanting to kill him."

"I know," she muttered somberly. "I'm just going to have to hope that he knows I wouldn't say accuse anyone of anything unless I was sure."


	21. Chapter 20

It had been a while since they all sat together around the campfire eating breakfast together. Ever since the thing with Sophia, everyone was either too busy or didn't have the patience to just sit around when they could be out doing something about Sophia. So it was nice, everyone just enjoying each other's company. It was almost enough to make Caterina forget about all of the shit that had been happening lately. Of course, that probably had something to do with Carl now having joined them for the first time since he got shot. And maybe the fact that Daryl had decided to sit so close to her.

…Okay, so maybe it had more to do with Daryl than anything else.

Anyway, Caterina couldn't help feeling like this peace would be short lived. Call her pessimistic, but she didn't think any of them were so lucky that everything would just work themselves out smoothly. She felt like this was just the calm before the storm. And once that storm hit… Well, she just hoped that they were all strong enough to deal with whatever it brought.

Speaking of storms, Caterina glanced over at where Glenn was sitting outside of the group, staring out at the barn. She had noticed that he had been staring at it practically non-stop the past day or so. Even Dale would throw the occasional glance its way, as if he were waiting for something to happen. She couldn't be sure, but she had a feeling that there was something wrong with the barn and Glenn had found out about it. It would explain why Maggie had suddenly felt the need to shower them with food, and why Glenn had gotten nervous when Caterina asked him what the occasion was.

She frowned as Glenn suddenly got to his feet and started pacing, wringing his hands together.

"Um, guys?" Glenn spoke up.

Here comes the storm, Caterina thought as she set her plate down on the grass next to her and leaned forward, giving Glenn her undivided attention while everyone else just glanced up at him curiously. None of them apparently had been feeling the same way that Caterina had been. Then again, none of them had been through the things that Caterina had been through. They weren't used to all this chaos, so they haven't developed her ability to sense the storm.

"So…" Glenn muttered before blurting out, "The barn's full of walkers."

Everyone froze and stared up at Glenn in shock, none of them quite sure how to take it. Caterina exchanged looks with Daryl before she looked over at Rick. He was probably the only one who didn't seem shocked; instead, he was just staring at Glenn as if he wasn't surprised, more like he was disappointed. Though, to be honest, Caterina supposed that she shouldn't be surprised either. After the argument that Rick and Hershel had over whether or not this…disease, or whatever it was, had a cure. Hershel had seemed firm in his belief that those who had gotten infected were just sick and that someone would find a cure and bring back those who had fallen victim to the plague, that it was all just nature's way of correcting itself somehow.

Since it appeared that no one else was going to be snap out of their shock any time soon, Caterina stood up. "Show us," she ordered.

This worked to effectively pull everyone from their stupor, and they all started putting down their own plates so they could stand up as well. Glenn nodded and started leading the way down to the bar. Caterina followed him, with the rest of the group close at her heels.

Once they had reached the barn, they all paused a few feet away while Shane went to peer into the barn through a small gap in the wall. He stepped away after a moment to approach Rick.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this," Shane scoffed.

"No, I'm not," Rick said. "But we're guests here. This isn't our land."

"Oh God…" he muttered before yelling, "This is our lives, man!"

"Lower your voice," Glenn pleaded.

"We can't just weep this under the rug," Andrea said.

"It ain't right," T-Dog added. "Not remotely."

Shane paced behind everyone before stepping around Caterina to address the group. "Okay, we've either gotta go in there, we gotta make things right, or we've just gotta go. Now, we've been talkin' 'bout Fort Benning for a long time now."

"We can't go," Rick said forcefully.

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"'Cause my daughter's still out there," Carol spoke up, pulling everyone's gaze to her.

"Okay…" Shane ran his hands over his face with a heavy sigh. "Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"Shane!" Rick warned. "We're not leavin' Sophia behind."

"We're close to findin' this girl," Daryl agreed. "I just found her damn doll two days ago."

"You found her doll, Daryl," Shane said. "That's what you did. You found a _doll_."

"You don't know what the hell you're talkni' about!" he barked, tossing his hands at him like he usually did when he was irritated.

"Hey, now, I'm just sayin' what needs to be said! Now, you get a good lead, it's in the first forty-eight hours!"

"Shane!" Rick snapped. "Shane, stop!"

"Now, let me tell you sumthin' else, man!" Shane continued, completely ignoring Rick. "If she was alive out there and saw you comin' all methed out with your buck knife and your Geek ears 'round your neck, she would run in the other direction, man!"

Daryl and Shane started trying to yell over each other threateningly, and Rick and Caterina had to step between them to try to keep them separated while, at the same time, trying to calm them both down. Caterina was able to lead Daryl back a few steps, although he hadn't calmed down any, but Shane kept trying to come at him, so Lori hurried over to try to hell Rick pull Shane away.

"Back off!" Rick ordered.

Shane stopped struggling, but he just turned his anger on Lori. "Keep your hands off me," he snapped before he started to walk away from the group.

"Now, just let me talk to Hershel," Rick called after him. "Let me figure it out."

Shane stopped to yell at him again. "What're you gonna figure out?" he asked as started to move towards Rick like he'd done with Daryl, but Lori stepped forward to intercept him.

"Knock it off!"

"If we're gonna stay," Rick continued, "if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land."

"Hershel sees those things in there as people—sick people," Dale informed him. "His wife, his step son…"

"You knew?" Rick asked, almost sounding hurt that Dale had kept such important information from him as well.

"Yesterday. I talked to Hershel."

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked.

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."

Shane scoffed at him before turning on his partner again. "The man is crazy, Rick. If Hershel thinks those things are alive or no!"

Rick started to try to calm Shane down again, but everyone froze when the chains on the barn door started to rattle as the walkers pushed against it, trying to get to the food that they could hear fighting outside. The women—apart from Caterina—hurried away with Carl while the others stood their ground, staring at the barn with apprehension. Daryl stepped forward slightly so that he was standing in front of Caterina, as if trying to protect her while still trying to be subtle about it.

Caterina reached out and placed her hand on Daryl's arm. "If we're going to continue to argue, we should at least move away from the barn," she suggested.

The others seemed to see the logic in this, so they all followed Caterina back up to the campsite.

"Now, I understand that we need to deal with this barn situation," she said, mostly towards Shane, "but Rick's right. This is Hershel's land. We're just guests. We need to have his blessing before we go in guns blazing. Like Dale said, his son and wife are in that barn."

"There's no way you're gonna be able to talk that man into lettin' us deal with 'em," Shane scoffed.

"At least let Rick try before you go jumping to conclusions, all right?" Caterina asked exasperatedly.

Shane didn't look convinced, but he didn't say anything more. Instead, he just walked off.

"Thank you," Rick expressed.

"Do you want me to go with you to talk to Hershel?" Caterina asked, deciding to ignore his thanks. After all, she hadn't really done it only for him. She really did agree that talking things over with Hershel was the right thing to do. It was his land, and his family. At any rate, she couldn't bring herself to agree with anything Shane said. Although there was some logic in it, she didn't like how he went about things. Not to mention she wouldn't trust him as far as she could throw him, which admittedly would be very satisfying for her to do. Maybe, after she got her proof about Otis, she could talk Rick into letting her take Shane out into the woods and tie him to a tree and leave him for the walkers.

…So this thing with Shane was making her into a bit of a sadist.

"No, I think it's best if I do it on my own," Rick said, pulling Caterina away from her vicious thoughts. "Besides, you wanted to go out today, didn't you?"

Caterina nodded.

"Then you can get goin'. I'll come join you later on."

She nodded again and watched as Rick slowly made his way up to the farmhouse, probably thinking about how he was going to talk Hershel into seeing things for how they really are. She did not envy him his task. But, if anyone could do it, it was Rick.

Caterina glanced at Dale and Daryl before turning and disappearing into her tent.

* * *

Once Caterina had all of her weapons in place, she tied her hair back into a high ponytail while she went over her mental check-list. She had spent the entire time last night thinking about how she was going to do this run. She was pretty sure that, while the high school might not be as overrun as it had been when Shane and Otis went, it would have cleared out by now. She had noticed before that walkers tended to be a bit ADD. They never really stayed in one place for too long, and there wasn't much that could hold their attention for more than a few seconds (apart from food, of course).

She'd had to come up with a game plan that would get her in and out without much trouble while still giving her time to properly examine Otis' body, wherever she may find it. While she was sure that she'd come up with a suitable plan, she still had to worry about whether or not any of it would really work. After all, there was a lot of information missing that she'd needed to come up with a sure-fire way of getting this done. First, she didn't now where Otis' body was. Second, she didn't know how many walkers there would be around his body. Third, she didn't know the layout of the high school so, if she got overrun, she didn't know the best place to treat to.

Caterina sighed heavily and slid the strap of her crossbow over her shoulder before walking out her tent. She glanced around the camp in search of Daryl before going over to his tent. The flap was open, so she peeked inside only to find that Daryl wasn't there. She pulled the flap to the side and slid into his tent, glancing around at all of his stuff. Finally, her gaze fell on his night stand, and she spotted the necklace of walker's ears that Daryl had made sitting there. She grabbed them and tucked them into her front pocket before grabbing an extra rag that she had spotted sitting on the empty camper bed.

She ducked back out of his tent and walked over to where Carol was hanging up laundry. "Have you seen Daryl?" she asked as she took a long-sleeved, black plaid shirt from the clothesline. It was still a bit damp, but that didn't matter. Georgia was hot as hell, so she was sure that she'd end up sweating it in anyway.

"Yeah," Carol said. "He went to the stables."

Caterina sighed, already knowing what he was probably doing. It had only been a day, so she was more than positive that he hadn't even started to heal from his day out yesterday. But Daryl was stubborn, and he seemed determined to find Sophia. So, of course, he was going to try to go out and continue the search as soon as he possibly could, regardless of his own injuries.

"I tried to talk him out of it, but he just walked off," Carol tried to apologize, apparently thinking that Caterina was upset that she hadn't tried to stop him.

"It's fine," she assured her. "I'll go talk to him." She slipped into the over shirt and started to walk towards the stables. She was stopped, however, when Carol called after her. She turned back to look at her curiously.

"I don't want anyone else getting hurt because of me," she said. "I mean, we don't even know if we're going to find her. _I_ don't."

Caterina stared at her, not saying anything.

"I can't lose any more people that I care about. I know you don't want to lose him either."

Caterina just continued to stare at her for a moment before nodding in understanding. She was right. She didn't want to lose Daryl. She cared for him way too much. While she still wasn't one hundred percent sure what she felt for Daryl, she knew that it went well beyond just attraction or a crush. Not that she would ever admit that to him, of course. Or to anyone really. She'd had trouble admitting it to herself; she could only imagine how difficult it would be to tell someone else about her feelings for Daryl.

When she got to the stables, Caterina saw Daryl hauling a riding saddle out of the equipment area. She leaned against the frame of the stables with her arms crossed in front her and just watched as he dropped it onto the saddle rack with a pained grunt. He paused over it, panting—not from exertion but from pain.

"You okay?" Caterina asked, although the answer was more than obvious.

"I'm fine," he grunted, not even bothering to glance at her as he grabbed the reins from their hooks.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Daryl's stubbornness. He was worse than her father. "Hershel said you need to heal," she reminded him.

"Yeah? I don't care."

"I know you don't. But I do."

Daryl paused, but he didn't say anything. He just glanced at her before he went in one of the horse stables.

Caterina pushed away from the wall and walked over to where he was. "I'm going out to search the ridge," she said. "And Rick said he'll join me later today."

"I heard," he reminded her. "I ain't gonna sit around and do nothin'."

"So you'd rather go out there and get yourself hurt even worse?"

Daryl didn't say anything. He just continued to ready the horse to take it out.

Cat looked down at her feet and shuffled them, thinking about how she could convince him to stay. She was being hypocritical, she knew. If she were in his situation, she would be doing the same thing. The only reason that she had allowed herself a bit of rest when her arm was infected was because Rick and Hershel had been so adamant about it. If she hadn't known that they would be upset if she ignored their worry and went out anyway, she would have. But she cared too much about Rick, and she was growing to care about Hershel, so she did what they wanted and waited for her arm to start healing before she went out again.

"I know that you probably don't care about me in the sense that I care about you…" she started.

Daryl stopped and looked at her, but she didn't dare look up from her feet.

"But if you did…" she continued slowly. "If it were me that was injured and I wanted to go out on my own…" She finally looked up, wanting Daryl to see the distress on her face. "Would you let me?" she asked.

Daryl stared at her, not letting anything show on his face. But she could see the conflict in his eyes. He was being pulled between his apparent desire to find Sophia and the truth in Caterina's words. She didn't know what his feelings for her were, or even if he had any, but it was obvious that he at least cared about her. Ever since the beginning, Daryl had gone out of his way to protect and defend her. He'd tried to be subtle about it at first and, if it weren't for Caterina's ability to notice even the tiniest of details, she wouldn't have noticed it. But she had, and she felt bad about using that knowledge now to try to force him into submission. It was necessary if she wanted to make sure that he stayed alive.

After what felt like hours, Daryl removed the reins from the horse and walked back out of the stables to put them up on the hook. She allowed herself a small sigh of relief that she'd managed to convince him.

"You'd best be careful, understand?" Daryl pretty much demanded.

Caterina looked at him in slight surprise but nodded. Daryl stepped up to her, and the two stared at each other for a long moment. He took another hesitant step forward, staring at her searchingly. She noticed his eyes fall to her lips before moving back up to her eyes, and she saw him swallow, like he was nervous. Her throat jumped into her throat as she realized that Daryl was about to kiss her. But, instead of actually doing, Daryl nodded his farewell and brushed past her.

She was left staring at where Daryl had been standing. She blinked and turned to watch as Daryl stalked out of the stables. She let out a disappointed sigh and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. What the hell was with him? Did he like messing with her mind like that? Confusing her?

Caterina shook those thoughts from her head and went to follow back Daryl to camp. Now wasn't the time to worry about him and his mixed signals. She needed to focus on the task at hand. She paused to watch as Daryl disappeared into his tent after throwing her one last look before turning to Carol, who was staring at her curiously. She adjusted her crossbow and walked over to her again.

"I take it that it went well?" Carol asked.

"About as well as it could," Caterina muttered.

Carol nodded in understanding. She was probably the one person that understood Daryl about as well that Caterina did.

"Listen, could I borrow your car for a bit?" she asked. "I want to go back up to the housing development and take another look around while Rick is talking to Hershel."

"Of course. Just…be careful, all right?"

"I will be." She paused to look over her shoulder at Daryl's tent before turning back to Carol. "Keep an eye on him while I'm gone?" she asked in a low voice.

Carol smiled and nodded. "Of course."

Caterina smiled slightly in return and started over to where Carol's station wagon was parked. She paused when she spotted Dale by the RV and altered her course to meet him. Dale noticed her walking towards him, and a look of understanding passed over his face and he hurried forward to meet her.

"Could I borrow some gloves?" Caterina asked.

"Sure," Dale said before he disappeared into his RV. He returned a moment later with a pair of gardening gloves.

As she reached out to take them from him, Caterina moved forward so that she was standing almost face-to-face with Dale. "Keep an eye on Shane while I'm gone," she whispered, ever mindful of Glenn's perch just above them on the roof of the RV.

When she pulled out of his personal space, Dale nodded, looking as if she'd just given him the most important mission ever—and, in essence, she supposed she had.

* * *

Caterina parked half a mile away from the high school, deciding again that it wouldn't be safe to drive directly up to the school and risk any walkers hearing the car. She killed the engine and just sat in the car, going over her plan in her head. She would approach from the forest so that she could scope the high school before she went in looking for Otis. Once she found him, if there were no walkers around him, she would examine him as quickly as possible and then bolt back into the forest. If any walkers spotted her before she could leave, making her way through the forest would give her the chance to ditch them before she got back to the car.

She took in a steadying breath and reached into her front pocket for the ear necklace that she had taken from Daryl, slipping it around her neck. While they wouldn't mask her smell for long, they would at least work to confuse any walkers just long enough for her to get everything done before she had to leave.

Checking once more than all of her weapons were in place, Caterina climbed out of the car and started her trek into the forest.

It took her ten minutes to reach the high school. The only reason it had taken so long was because she was being careful not to make too much noise. There was no telling how many walkers had left the school to wander the forest. While she hadn't run into yet, she wasn't about to let herself think that she was safe. She paused at the tree line and scanned as much of the campus as she could. From her position, she couldn't see very many walkers, and the one that she could see were closer to the school. If Shane had taken Otis down while they were making their escape, it would stand to reason that Otis had fallen in the parking lot. It didn't appear that there were many walkers there, so it should be relatively easy for her to complete her mission.

Then again, things were rarely as easy as they seemed. And even if they did, there was usually a horrendous ending that followed.

Caterina shook those thoughts away and started making her way to the parking lot.

As luck would have it, Caterina found Otis' body lying in the middle of the parking lot, a safe distance away from the walkers. The only reason that she knew it was Otis's was because she recognized the clothes that he'd been wearing. Their backs had been ripped to shreds, but she still recognized him. As for the body…well, the walkers had done a real number on him, that was for sure. He was pretty much just bone and muscle and tendons. At least, with how much had been taken out of him, he hadn't been able to come back as a walker.

Caterina snuck over to the body and knelt down next to it. She checked the distance between her and the walkers once more before taking Dale's gardening gloves from her pocket and sliding them on so that she could roll Otis's body onto its back. She glanced over the corpse, refusing to look at his face. She was already having trouble looking at his body as she was; she didn't think she would be able to handle seeing the damage that had been done to his face.

She moved her gave carefully over Otis's torso before allowing her eyes to trail down his legs. She paused as she noticed what looked like a bullet wound on his knee. She took her switchblade from its holster on her thigh and used it to carefully split the remaining skin on his knee, just enough to let her see the kneecap. It had been completely shattered. She could just barely see the end of the bullet that had caused the cap to break like that, embedded in the back of knee. So Shane had shot out his knee to keep him from running, to use Otis as a distraction for the walkers so that he could got away, like what happened with the horse that Caterina and Rick had ridden into Atlanta.

She glanced down at Otis's partially eaten hand and noticed a few strands of short brown hair tangled in the shredded flesh. She removed one of the gloves and tucked it into her pocket so she could grab Daryl's rag. She placed it on the ground next to the body and pulled a few of the hairs from the hand, careful to use her nails so that she didn't get any of Otis's blood on her. She placed the hairs in the rag and folded the material around them so she could slip it back into her pocket.

Caterina's head snapped up as she heard a gaggle of hungry growls. It seemed that the walkers had finally noticed her and were making their way towards her now. She quickly tucked her switchblade back into its holster and pulled her crossbow from her shoulder as she took off back to the forest. She ran as quickly as her feet could carry her, jumping over roots and dodging beneath low hanging branches. She paused once she felt that she was far enough away from the walkers and tossed her crossbow down for a moment so that she could remove her overshirt. She tossed it on the ground with her crossbow and grabbed her buck knife, swiping it across her palm quickly, wincing as the sharpened blade cut through her skin. She grabbed her overshirt and smeared her blood over as much of it as she could in the short amount of time she had. Once she was satisfied that it had been soaked in enough blood, she dropped it back on the ground and grabbed her crossbow before taking off again.

She wasn't sure it would work, but she hoped that the smell of her blood would distract the walkers enough to prevent them from seeing where she went. It was just a theory, something that she had observed ever since these things took over. The walkers only went after fresh meat, meat that was still wet and nourished. Once the blood was no longer running and the meat began to dry out, the walkers appeared to loose interest. So her thought was that maybe it wasn't the scent of fresh meat that they were drawn to; it was the scent of fresh blood.

As much as she wanted to see her theory proven correct, she didn't dare pause even a second to see if the walkers were still following her. She could still hear their feral moans and, although they were fainter now, that was enough to keep her running.

* * *

She managed to get back to car within three minutes, much less time that it had taken to get to the high school. By the time she'd gotten in the car, it appeared that she had long since lost the walkers, so she didn't bother going the long way back. Instead, she drove straight through town on her way back to the farm. While she knew that, if they heard the car, the walkers would go off in search of the sound, she didn't let herself care about that. At any rate, she was driving much too fast for them to be able to pinpoint which direction the sound was coming from before she was gone.

Caterina gave a sigh of relief when she finally pulled back into camp. After that run, as soon as they found Sophia, she was going to give herself a day, maybe two. It had been too long since she'd been without company. She was no longer any more used to being so close to a horde without backup than the others were.

As she was stepping out of the station wagon, she heard gunshots coming from the direction of the barn. Her head snapped to the side so fast that she almost gave herself whiplash. She could see the others gathered near the barn. While she could only just barely make out their figures, she was able to see enough that she got worried. It looked like there were two people struggling to keep two walkers in place using snare poles while someone stood in front of them, shooting at one of the walkers. She didn't need to be able to see them to know that it was Shane.

She grabbed her Beretta from the back of her pants and took off towards the barn.

"Enough riskin' our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane was shouting as Caterina reached the group. "Enough livin' next to a barn full o' things that are tryin' to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now, if ya'll wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talkin' 'bout fightin'! Right here, right now!" He turned and started running to the barn.

Rick made to go after him before remembering that he was the only thing standing between the walker that he was holding on to and the rest of the group. He turned to where Hershel was knelt on the ground, staring at the second corpse as it laid in front of him, riddled with bullets. "Take the snare pole!" Rick instructed. "Hershel!" he shouted when the old man didn't move. "Hershel, take the snare pole!"

Hershel just continued to stare down at the corpse.

"Hershel, listen to me, man, please," Rick begged. "Take it now! Hershel! Take it!"

Still, he didn't move. But, even if he had snapped out of his shock at that point, it was too late. Shane was already beating on the padlock on the barn door with a pickax.

"No, Shane! Do not do this, brother! Wait!"

Shane didn't listen. Instead, he flipped the pickax in his hands to use the head to pry off the lock.

"Don't do it!" Glenn pleaded.

"Please!" Rick added.

Once the lock had come off, Shane tossed the pickax aside and, instead of removing the chains, he removed the board that had been placed in the handles to keep the doors closed. The walkers were pushing on the doors, but not hard enough to open it fully. So Shane started banging on them to try to rile them up enough to press against the door and open it themselves.

"Come on!" Shane shouted. "Come on, we're out here!"

"This is not the way!" Rick continued. "Please!"

Lori pushed Carl behind her, realizing that there was no way that Shane was going to stop at this point. "Get behind me."

Shane backed away from the barn and pulled out his handgun, aiming at the doors, waiting. Finally, the walkers were able to push the doors open, and they started piling out one-by-one. Andrea was the first to join Shane at his side, with T-Dog right behind her, and then Daryl. As if on cue, they all started firing at the same time, taking down each walker as it made its way out of the barn.

Caterina cursed to herself before running forward to stand with the group, but she didn't join in the shooting. As much as she agreed that having a barn full of walkers wasn't safe, this was not the way to go about getting rid of them.

Glenn stepped up next to Maggie, who was trying to console her father. "Maggie?" he said, silently asking her permission to join in.

"It's okay," Maggie said.

Glenn nodded in thanks and stepped forward to help put down the walkers.

Caterina saw Shane stop to look back at Rick, and her heart leapt nervously in her chest. But he just shot the walker that Rick was still trying to keep in place before turning back on the barn walkers.

"Stay back!" Rick shouted as Carl tried to run forward, only to be stopped by Lori. "Stop!" he yelled to the others, but they didn't listen. They just continued to fire.

Finally, the last of the walkers stepped out of the barn and was put down. Everyone lowered their weapons and stared at the pile of corpses. Daryl looked back at the group and paused when he saw Caterina standing there. His jaw tensed when he saw the disappointment on her face, and he looked away, apparently unable to see her looking at him like that.

It was silent as everyone tried to soak in what had just happened, even the people that had been the ones shooting.

Then, there was another growl from the barn. They waited anxiously for the last walker to step out, but no one shot as it stepped out into the light. It was a young girl with shoulder-length, curly blonde hair. There was a chunk of flesh missing from her left shoulder, and her face was dirty and her eyes were pale, but they were all able to recognized her. It was Sophia.

Caterina's heart dropped into her stomach like a rock.

"Sophia?" Carol sobbed from the back of the group. "Sophia!"

She tried to run for her daughter, but Caterina stepped out and grabbed her around the waist to keep her from going any further. She struggled against her hold, but Caterina just tightened her grip. She understood Carol's desire to hold her daughter, even if it was for the last time, but she couldn't allow her to. Sophia was gone, nothing now but a walking corpse.

Carol's knees seemed to give out and Caterina slowly lowered the both of them to the group, Carol all the while reaching for her daughter helplessly.

"Sophia…" she continued to sob. "Sophia… Sophia…"

Caterina watched with a blank stare as the little girl carefully made her way through the bodies, never taking her dead eyes off of the group, growing hungrily. She could feel some kind of pain in her chest, a burning like she wanted to cry but wasn't able to. But she couldn't feel any tears, at least not yet. She knew that it was soon to come, but for now she would pretend that she wasn't bothered by the scene in front of her. For now, she would keep her mask on a little longer.

She looked over to Rick as he started to move forward, a determined and dispirited look on his face. He pulled his Python from its holster at his side and raised it, aiming at the girl's head. He hesitated for a brief moment before pulling the trigger, and the girl fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.


	22. Chapter 21

**Author's Note**

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to put this up. Being so close to Christmas, I've been SUPER busy. Not to mention my friends took over my apartment a few days ago to celebrate the end of the semester! Anyway, I'm going to try to get the next to chapters up today. If not, it's gonna have to wait until after Christmas, since I'm going to be at my mother's and I won't have access to a computer over there. So I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and, in case I don't post any more after this, have a great Christmas!

P.S. I'm not really satisfied with how this chapter turned out, but I can't think of a better way to write it right now, so I decided to post it as is.

* * *

Everyone was silent as they stared at the young girl's fallen corpse, the only sound being Carol's sobs as she cried into Caterina's shoulder. Caterina held her arms around the older woman, trying to comfort her while at the same time knowing that it was no use. The poor woman had just lost her daughter for the second time in just a few weeks. She couldn't imagine how much pain Carol must be in. Not only Carol, but the others as well. They had spent so many days out looking for Sophia. For them to find out that she'd been dead all this time, cooped up in a barn full of walkers…

Caterina looked up at Rick at the same time that he turned to look at her, a heartbroken look in his eyes. She didn't need him to say anything in order to know what he was thinking. Next to Daryl, Rick had been the most determined in the entire group to find Sophia. He felt responsible for her going missing in the first place, so he had made it his personal mission to see her back safely.

She nodded imperceptibly, silently telling him that everything was going to be all right, even though she didn't really believe it. How could she after everything that had happened to them so far? Still, just like Rick tried to keep up hope when even he thought that there was none, she had to keep Rick's morale up even if she herself felt like giving in to the new world. Rick was the glue that held this broken group together. Without him, she was sure that they all would've fallen apart by now.

"Come on," Caterina muttered as she helped Carol onto her feet.

As soon as she was stable, Carol pushed away from Caterina and ran back up towards the camp. Caterina just watched her go. Carol needed some time to herself, to properly mourn the loss of her daughter.

Caterina turned her gaze upon the Greene family. Beth was clinging to Jimmy, sobbing just as hard as Carol as she stared at the pile of rotten corpses. Hershel had his hands pressed to his face, but at least he wasn't crying. Instead, he looked like he was struggling to come to terms with something. She wasn't sure what that was, but she had a feeling that it didn't necessarily have to do with his family being gun downed.

Beth pushed away from Jimmy and stumbled towards the bodies.

"Wait," Rick said as he tried to intercept Beth, but she just ducked around him.

She looked around for a moment before walking over to one of the female walkers pinned beneath another walker. Beth continued to cry as she grabbed the walker's arm and pulled it off of the female so that she could roll the body onto its back.

"Mom…" she sobbed.

Caterina saw the body twitch before she heard the growl. Beth screamed as the walker reached for her, clutching at her blonde waves. Caterina was the first to move, running over to Beth and grabbing her, pulling her away before the walker got a good hold. Beth clutched at Caterina's arm wrapped around her waist while T-Dog ran forward and stomped on the walker's in an attempt to keep it down. Daryl ran up behind Caterina and took her handgun from her loose grip, and he shot the walker in the head, killing it for the last time.

Everyone fell silent again, as if they were in shock.

Hershel came up next to Caterina, his eyes on his youngest daughter. Caterina gently pulled her arm out of Beth's grasp and stepped back. As soon as she did, Beth turned and latched onto her father. He and Patricia started leading Beth back up towards the house, with Maggie and Glenn right behind them.

Shane ran his hands over his face agitatedly before going after them. Rick took off after him, knowing that it would be a bad idea to let Shane out of his sight.

Caterina stared after them before turning to watch as Andrea grabbed a thick blanket from inside of the barn and draped it over Sophia's body carefully. She raised her hands behind her head and laced her fingers together. She closed her eyes, mentally cursing every god that she could think of for being so cruel, cursing herself for not having found Sophia sooner, cursing Shane for bringing everything into light like he did… She could feel the tears building up behind her eyes now. Not wanting to cry in front of the others, she dropped her hands back down to her sides and walked off.

She stalked out into the field that she and Rick had run through to get to Hershel's house the first time, wanting to be alone but not wanting to stray too far from the others. Once she determined that she was far enough away, she started pacing, running her fingers through her hair. She didn't bother to try to stop the tears as they rained down her cheeks, now that there was no one there to see her. While she didn't see crying as a sign of weakness, she didn't want to appear so vulnerable around the others. She may think of them as a family, but that didn't mean that she was comfortable enough with all of them to let her walls down.

As she paced, the anger and sadness built up in her stomach until she couldn't contain it. She stomped over to a nearby tree and punched it with her already injured hand, hard enough that several large pieces of bark to rained down while smaller fragments embed themselves in her knuckles. She pulled her fist up to her chest and rubbed at the raw, bleeding flesh on her knuckles. She didn't feel too satisfied, but it had been enough to at least calm her down a bit.

She heard someone behind her, but she didn't bother to look. She already knew who it was. Daryl had a distinct way of carrying himself, and it echoed itself in the way that he walked, so it was easy enough to distinguish his footsteps from the others.

Neither of them said a word, but she could feel Daryl staring at her back.

"I had my doubts that we would find her," Caterina admitted after a long moment. "I'm a soldier. I know when to deem a situation hopeless." She paused and closed her eyes as more tears fell. "But a part of me still hoped that we would find her huddled in a cave or a house, starving but alive," she said, her voice breaking.

Daryl walked a bit closer. "We all hoped we'd find her."

Caterina nodded and reached up to wipe her tears away with her injured hand, having forgotten about the state of her knuckles. She was reminded when some of bark in her knuckles scraped against her cheeks. She winced at the feeling and pulled her hand away, glaring down at her hand lightly. Daryl noticed all of this and stepped around her, taking her hand in his so that he could examine it.

"Damn," he muttered. "Remind me never to piss you off."

Caterina smiled slightly.

Daryl paused before turning her hand over. He frowned when he saw the cut that she had made when she left the high school. She had all but forgotten about it in all of the chaos that followed her arrival at the camp. "What the hell did you do?" Daryl demanded almost angrily.

"I cut my hand," she muttered.

"Yeah, I can see that," he scoffed. "Wait here."

He turned and jogged back up towards the house. Caterina watched him for a moment before walking over to the tree that she had punched and plopping down in front of it. She set to work pulling out as much of the bark as she could while she waited for Daryl to return. When he finally did, she had managed to remove almost all of the bark.

She looked up as she heard him approaching again

Daryl motioned to her to stand up. "Get up," he instructed as he set to work unraveling the roll of bandages in his hand. He took Caterina's hand again once she was back on her feet and set to work wrapping it. Caterina stared at his face while he worked. His eyes were slitted, as if he were struggling to see what he was doing, and his brow was furrowed. Honestly, she'd never seen him so concentrated on something before, not even when he had been tracking Sophia's from the highway.

"You're pretty good at this," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I've had plenty of practice," he grunted. When he had finished, he turned her hand over carefully, as if to admire his work. He nodded to himself in satisfaction and dropped her hand. "That should do."

"Thanks…" she muttered as she cradled her hand to her chest again, rubbing her bandaged knuckles.

Daryl looked away from her hands to finally look her in the face. He frowned as he noticed the blood on her cheeks from when she had tried to wipe away her tears. He reached into his back pocket for the cloth that he always kept there and took a step closer. She was surprised when he reached out and grabbed her chin gently while he used the rag to wipe away the blood and tear stains. He put his rag back in his pocket once he was done, but he didn't let go of her chin. Instead, he raised his gaze to look in her eye. For the second time that day, she thought that he might kiss her. But, just like before, he seemed to decide against and walked away.

"You know, that's the second time you chickened out like that," Caterina called out before she could stop herself.

Daryl froze and turned to frown at her. "What'd you say?"

She swallowed nervously, already regretting having called him out. Still, what was done was down, and she wasn't about to back out now. But that didn't mean that she was looking forward to what this conversation would bring. She was pretty sure that, if Daryl had been thinking before that he probably didn't like her as much as he thought, he'd definitely decide that he disliked her know.

When Caterina didn't say anything, Daryl's eyes narrowed into a glare and he took a threatening step towards her. "I don't chicken out of anything," he growled.

"Really?" she challenged, surprised that she sounded so sure of herself when her heart was literally trying to jump out of her throat. "Because that's the second time you've copped out of kissing me."

"Why would I wanna kiss you?" Daryl scoffed.

Her stomach dropped at that, but she didn't let it show on her face that he'd upset her at all. Instead, she rolled her eyes. "You did before."

"_You're_ the one who kissed _me_."

"The second time, yes, but you kissed back."

Daryl paused, apparently at a loss for words. After a moment, he tossed his hands as he turned to walk away again before turning to approach her again. "What the hell do you want? Huh?" It was obvious that he was feeling as uncomfortable about this conversation as Caterina was, but the reason for it was unknown to her.

She copied him by throwing her hands in the air. "I want you to fucking do or say _something_ and stop confusing the shit out of me!"

"You want me to do sumthin'? Fine!" Daryl stormed up to her and she took a step back, worrying that he was about to hit her. Instead, he tangled his fingers in the hair at the base of her neck and kissed her roughly. Caterina was surprised for a moment, staring wide-eyed at what little she could see of Daryl's face. It took her less than a second to relax, and she closed her eyes and returned as much of the pressure as she dared while she reached out to grab his arm. He pulled back just enough to put a few inches of space between them. "Happy?" he panted.

Caterina nodded, unable to speak.

Daryl stared at her before pressing forward to kiss her much more lightly. It lasted only a few seconds before he pulled away again and took a step back, dropping his arms back down to his side.

They just stood there awkwardly for a moment, neither of them really sure what to say.

"So you like me, huh?" Caterina finally settled with.

Daryl rolled his eyes with a huff, but she could see his face turning red.

"Sorry," she chuckled.

She noticed something moving across the field, and she looked past Daryl to see Dale standing by the cars, apparently staring at them. Her smile fell as she recalled the issue with Shane, having all but forgotten about it after everything that happened.

"I'm sorry to, uh…kiss and run, but I need to go talk to Dale."

Daryl frowned but didn't say anything.

"Why don't you go see to Carol," she suggested. "I'm sure she'd appreciate some company."

Still, Daryl didn't move an inch. He just stared at her hesitantly. Finally, he nodded in understanding, apparently not needing to ask to know that whatever Caterina had to talk to Dale about was important. Caterina smiled and stepped up to him, grasping his shoulders so that she could lean forward to kiss him on the cheek before she walked off to join Dale.

As she neared him, Dale moved forward to meet her. "So, you and Daryl, huh?" he said in lieu of a greeting.

"Shut up," she muttered with a slight smile.

Dale just grinned. He stared at her face and noticed the puffiness of her eyes. "You okay?"

Caterina's smile fell slightly. "No," she answered honestly, "but I will be."

Dale nodded with an understanding smile.

"I found Otis' body."

"And?"

"And we were right. Shane killed him. He shot out his kneecap so he couldn't run away and left him for bait."

Dale sighed and ran his hand over his face. "Are you going to tell Rick?"

"Once everything calms down. It would be cruel to tell him about Shane right after…" She trailed off.

Dale nodded. "No, you're right. We should give it time."

"Hey," some called.

Caterina and Dale looked up and saw Lori approaching them from the field.

"We're ready."

Caterina didn't have to ask to know what she meant. She exchanged looks with Dale before they both followed Lori back down towards the barn. They went to join the others where they were already gathered beneath a large oak tree. She broke away from the two to stand with Daryl, who looked at her as she came next to him and nodded. She smiled slightly before turning her gaze upon the three graves. No one said anything as they stared on sorrowfully.

After a few moment, they turned to leave one-by-one. Daryl stalked off in the opposite direction, but Caterina didn't follow. Instead, she went back up to the camp.

* * *

Caterina stood in Hershel's bedroom barely an hour later. Apparently, Maggie had gone looking for him when her sister, Beth, suddenly fell into catatonic shock and had discovered him missing. She had called Caterina, Rick, and Shane to see if they could help her find her father. Rick was now going through a few boxes that had been placed on the bed, filled with what Caterina could only guess were Hershel's wife's things.

"Your stepmother's things?" Rick asked, apparently thinking the same thing as Caterina.

"He was so sure she'd recover," Maggie said. "They'd just pick up where they left off."

"Looks like he found an old friend," Shane spoke up from where he'd been going over Hershel's dresser. He tossed an old flask to Rick, who caught it too easily.

Maggie walked over to take the flask from him. "That belonged to my grandfather. Gave it to dad when he died."

"I didn't take Hershel for a drinker," Rick said.

"No, he gave it up on the day I was born. He didn't even allow liquor in the house."

Rick exchanged looks with Caterina, and she nodded. They both had the same idea. After all that had happened, Hershel must've reverted to his drinking days. Rick stepped around the bed to stand close to Maggie. "What's the bar in town?"

"Hatlin's. He practically lived there in his drinking days."

"Bettin' that's where we'll find him."

"Yeah, I've seen the place. I'll take you," Glenn offered.

"All right, I'll get the car."

"Okay."

Caterina and Glenn started to follow Rick out of the room, but they all stopped when Maggie stepped out in front of Glenn, preventing him from going with them.

"N-No," she stuttered.

"It's an easy run," Glenn said.

"Like the pharmacy?"

Rick and Caterina exchanged slightly amused look before he reached out to pat Maggie on the arm, bringing her attention to him. "Hey, Maggie? We'll bring him back," he chuckled.

Maggie didn't say anything.

Rick continued out of the room with Caterina right behind him. Lori and Shane both abandoned their places in the room to follow them out.

"Rick?" Lori called.

He stopped with an exasperated look on his face. Caterina looked back at Lori before she turned her gaze on Rick. He gave her a slightly pleading look, silently asking her to get him out of whatever it was that Lori wanted to talk about, but there wasn't anything that she could do to stop this from happening. Even if she managed to get Rick away for now, as soon as they returned with Hershel, Lori would just demand to talk to him again.

"I'll get the car," Caterina offered. She gave Rick an apologetic look before she turned to leave.

She went out to where she had parked the station wagon and got in. She turned on the engine and drove the car closer up to the house, parking it near the steps. She grabbed her crossbow from the passenger seat and slung it over her shoulder before getting out of the car just as Rick was walking down the porch steps.

"Everything all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Rick replied.

Caterina moved for Rick to take her place at the driver's side and opened up the back door so she could climb in. She looked up as she noticed someone coming out of the house. Glenn grabbed the shotgun resting against the door frame while talking to Maggie. He went down the steps to join Rick and Caterina, and Maggie followed behind closely. He stopped again to talk to Maggie, and she kissed once he'd said whatever he had wanted to say.

Caterina exchanged looks with Rick.

Glenn finally pulled away from Maggie and approached the car.

"You ready?" Rick asked.

"Yeah."

* * *

Caterina sat silently in the backseat of Carol's station wagon, her crossbow laid across her lap. No one had said a word since they left the farm. They each seemed to be off in their own little world, thinking about whatever problems that they had going on. While Caterina wasn't really thinking about one thing in particular, she was certain that Glenn was thinking about whatever had been going on with him and Maggie. She was pretty sure the two were in love with each other, even if neither of them realized it yet. It wasn't unusual for kids their age to fall in love easily. And, with how the world was now, it was even easier for people to fall in love (though usually it was more lust than anything).

"Maggie said she loves me," Glenn suddenly spoke up.

Caterina smiled slightly to herself while Rick nodded, apparently having already suspected it just as Caterina had.

"She doesn't mean it," the boy laughed. "I mean, she can't. I mean, why…? S-She's upset. Or she's confused. She's probably feeling like—"

"I think she's smart enough to know what she's feeling," Rick argued.

Glenn shook his head, adamant. "No. No."

Rick laughed while Caterina just rolled her eyes at his denial. It was more than obvious that he'd never been in a relationship before, or at least not a serious one, so it was natural for him to doubt it. But that didn't make it any less annoying.

"No, you know what? She wants to be in love, so she's—she needs something to-to, like—to hold on to."

"Glenn, it's pretty obvious to everyone Maggie loves you, and not just because you're one of the last men standing," Rick said. "So what's the problem?"

"I didn't say it back," Glenn muttered.

"Huh."

"I have never had a woman say that to me before. You know, except my mom, of course, and my sisters. But, with Maggie, it's different."

"Well, I should hope so," Caterina said sarcastically.

Glenn frowned. "Shut up. You know what I mean."

Caterina grinned and met Rick's gaze as he looked in the rear view mirror at her, amused.

"We barely know each other. Wh-what does she really know about me? Nothing. We're practically strangers. But I-I don't know what to do with it. I just stood there like a jerk."

"Hey," Rick said. "Hey, this is a good thing. Sumthin' we don't get enough of these days. Enjoy it. And, when we get back, return the favor. It's not like she's goin' anywhere." He looked in the rear view mirror again. "That goes for you too, Cat."

Caterina blinked. "Me?"

"You and Daryl."

She rolled her eyes. "Please tell me you aren't on the Cat and Daryl train too," she groaned.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Rick laughed. "You two would be good for each other. I mean, you are about the only person he'll listen to."

Caterina didn't say anything. She just crossed her arms and looked out the window. She knew that he was right. Ever since they had first met, Daryl had always given in to her attempts to calm him down whenever he got upset. But she had a feeling that the only reason he had calmed down was because he hadn't wanted to risk hurting her on accident.

"So?" Rick prodded.

"So what?" she muttered.

"So are you two together?" Glenn asked.

Caterina gave the two an exasperated look. "What are you, teenage girls?" When Glenn just grinned at her, she rolled her eyes again. "If I tell you, will you drop it?"

Glenn nodded excitedly and turned around in his seat to look at her while Rick just nodded and glanced back at her in the rear view mirror.

Caterina sighed and looked back out the window again. "Honestly, I'm not sure. It's hard to tell it with Daryl," she admitted. And it was true. Daryl had a habit of hiding whatever he felt or thought. While she seemed pretty adept at reading him, even she couldn't always see what was going on inside of that brain of his. He was an annoyingly complicated man. "At any rate, I don't think either of us are really the 'dating' type."

"Why not?" Rick asked.

She shrugged. "I haven't had much experience with it, and I get the feeling Daryl hasn't either."

"What, you've never dated anyone?" Glenn asked in disbelief.

"Once, in college. It lasted for about five months."

"What happened?" Rick wondered.

"He ended it. To be honest, I was only with him to appease my mother. She was always complaining about how reserved I am emotionally, and she thought that being in a relationship would help with it."

"Did it?" Glenn asked.

"He ended it because he thought I wasn't 'committed' enough."

The two went quiet, exchanging looks. Caterina didn't say anything else; she just continued to stare out of the window.

They drove in silence for a few more minutes until they reached town, and Glenn directed Rick to Hatlin's. They parked in the middle of the street next to the building. Rick and Caterina were about to get out when Glenn stopped them.

"Rick," he said. "Cat and I know about Lori. Her being pregnant."

Caterina looked up at Rick at the same time that he looked back at her.

"I got her those pills."

"I figured," Rick muttered before getting out.

Glenn and Caterina exchanged slightly concerned looks before they got out of the car as well.

"I'm sorry I kept it from you," Glenn said.

"Me too," Caterina added.

"Don't be. You did what you thought was right," Rick assured them. "It just so happens it wasn't."

Caterina frowned, successfully chastised, and followed Rick and Glenn up to the entrance to the bar, each of them with their weapons drawn. Rick barged in first, his Python raised in case there was anything in the bar apart from Hershel. Caterina and Glenn followed behind closely. Rick paused in front of the door when he spotted the old veterinarian sitting at the bar across the room, his back to them. Either he already knew who it was, or he didn't care, because he didn't bother turning to see who had interrupted his drinking session.

"Hershel?" Rick called out while Caterina closed the door.

"Who's with you?" Hershel questioned.

"Cat. And Glenn."

"Maggie sent him?"

"He volunteered," Rick said as he returned his Python to its holster, and Caterina followed his example and strapped her crossbow to her back. "So did Cat," he added. "They're good like that." He approached the bar while Caterina stayed near the doors, in case any walkers had seen them go in and came after them. Glenn followed Rick in a little ways but stopped halfway to the bar, seeming to not want to leave Caterina completely by herself. "How many have you had?"

"Not enough," Hershel muttered.

Rick glanced back at his two friends before leaning towards Hershel. "Let's finish this up back at home."

Hershel didn't say anything.

"Beth collapsed," he tried to convince him. "She's in some…sort of state. Must be in shock. I think you are too."

"Maggie's with her?"

"Yeah, but Beth needs you."

"What could I do? She needs her mother, or rather to mourn like she shoulda done weeks ago. I'd robbed her of that. I see that now."

"You thought there was a cure. Can't blame yourself for holdin' out for hope."

"Hope?" he scoffed. "When I first saw you and Cat runnin' across my field with your boy in your arms, I'd little hope he'd survive."

"But he did."

Hershel nodded. "He did. Even though we lost Otis. Your man Shane made it back, and we saved your boy. That was the miracle that proved to me miracles do exist. Only it was a scam—a bait and switch. I was a fool, Rick. And you people saw that. My daughters deserve better than that."

Rick seemed to think that he should give Hershel some space, so he backed away from the bar, and he and Glenn moved back to join Caterina by the doors. She opened one of the doors and stepped out to stand on the porch, to make sure that there weren't any walkers coming their way. Glenn followed her out, but he stayed under the door frame.

"So what do we do?" Glenn asked quietly. "Just wait for him to pass out?"

"Just go," Hershel called out. "Just go!"

"I promised Maggie I'd bring you home safe," Rick argued.

Hershel chuckled humorlessly. "Like you promised that little girl?"

Caterina frowned. That was a little below the belt.

Rick approached the bar again. "So what's your plan?" he almost demanded. "Finish that bottle? Drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?"

Hershel put down his glass and got out of the stool, turning to meet Rick halfway. Caterina could sense that things were about to get heated, so she ushered Glenn back into the bar and went inside with him, closing the doors again. "Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm," Hershel snapped. "You people are like a plague! I do the Christian thing, give you shelter, and you destroyed it all!"

"The world was already in bad shape when we met."

"And you take no responsibility! You're supposed to be their leader!"

"Well, I'm here now!" Rick shouted. "Aren't I?"

Hershel backed off a bit at that, seeming to realize something. "Yes." He nodded. "Yes, you are." He walked back over to the bar and sat down again.

Rick joined him again and grabbed his arm. "Come on. Your girls need you now more than ever."

Hershel pulled his arm from Rick's grasp and turned in his seat to address him. "I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe it. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept comin', that's when I knew what an ass I'd been, that Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotting corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope. And when the little girl came outta the barn, the look on your face—I knew you knew it too. Right? There is no hope. And you know it now, like I do. Don't you?"

Rick didn't say anything.

"There is no hope for any of us."

Rick looked away and ran his hand over his face. Caterina exchanged looks with Glenn before the two of them moved further into the bar, figuring that they were going to be there for a while. Glenn went to the end of the bar behind Rick while Caterina sat down at one of the tables.

"Look, I'm done," Rick said. "I'm not doin' this anymore, cleanin' up after you. You know what the truth is? Nothing has changed. Death is death. It's always been there, whether it's from a heart attack or cancer or a walker. What's the difference? You didn't think it was hopeless before, did you?" He pointed towards the doors, towards the farm. "Now, there are people back at home tryin' to hang on and they need us, even if it's just to give 'em some reason to go on, even if we don't believe it ourselves. You know what? This isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them."

Hershel looked down thoughtfully for a moment, thinking over all that Rick had said. Finally, he drank the rest of his drink and stood up. Rick patted him on the back.

Caterina turned as she heard footsteps outside, just before the bar door opened, revealing two men. Caterina got to her feet and took a step back towards the door, holding her crossbow readily.

"Son of a bitch," one of the men said. "They're alive."

The second man (much bigger than the first) nodded to them.

Caterina exchanged looks with Rick, who just looked surprised, as opposed to Caterina's wariness. She had spent quite a few weeks by herself before she met Rick and decided to leave with him. She had met quite a few people during that time, and not all of them had been as friendly.

"You don't mind us joining you, do you?" the first man asked.

"Not at all," Rick said.

The two moved into the bar, closing the door behind them. Caterina walked over to Glenn and grabbed his arm, pulling him around the bar with her. He was obvious confused, but he went with her anyway. She placed her crossbow on the bar in front of her and settled in, keeping her eyes on the two newcomers.

"You mind gettin' us a few drinks while you're back there?" Rick asked.

Caterina nodded and knelt down to grab a bottle of Jameson from the stock beneath the counter. She stood up and pulled a few glasses towards her. She opened up the bottle and poured a round for Rick and Glenn. Rick nodded in thanks and took the bottle from her so he bring it over to the table that Caterina had been sitting at where the first man had settled in. The second man had taken a seat at the bar next to Hershel.

Rick poured two more glasses for them.

"I'm Dave," the first man introduced himself. "That scrawny-lookin' douche bag there is Tony."

"Eat me, Dave," Tony chuckled.

"Hey, maybe someday I will." He grabbed one of the glasses that Rick had poured. "We met out on I-95 comin' out of Philly. Damn shit-show that was."

"I'm Glenn. It's nice to meet some new people."

"Rick Grimes," Rick said as he handed the second glass to Tony.

Dave nodded before looking at Hershel. "How about you, pal? Have one?"

"I just quit," Hershel said.

"You have a unique sense of timing, my friend."

"His name's Hershel," Rick said for him. "He lost people today. A lot of 'em."

Dave's smile fell, and he adopted a sorrowful look that Caterina couldn't help but think wasn't sincere. "I'm truly sorry to hear that. To better days and new friends. And to our dead," he said, raising his glass in toast. Everyone but Hershel and Caterina took a drink. Dave downed his in one gulp and let out a satisfied sigh as he slammed the glass back down on the table. He reached over the table to grab the bottle, and Caterina and Rick caught a glimpse of the handgun tucked away in the back of his pants. Dave noticed their gazes, and he pulled the gun out to show it to them. "Not bad, huh? I got it off a cop."

"I'm a cop," Rick pointed out.

"This one was already dead."

"That's a P228—SIG-Sauer," Caterina observed.

Dave looked at her in surprise. "You know your guns."

"I grew up around them. My father was a fanatic."

He grinned. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I got your name."

She hesitated for a moment. "Caterina."

"Caterina," Dave repeated. "That's a beautiful name."

"My mother thought so."

They lapsed into another silence, Dave staring at Caterina now. She stared back at him coolly, trying to ignore the uneasy chill that went down her spine. While this man seemed nice enough, Caterina could just barely see something malicious underneath his friendly mask. Not only that, but the way he was staring at her set her even more on edge. It was a stare that she had gotten plenty of times back in her old neighborhood—usually from the men who'd had a reputation for 'taking advantage of women.'

Rick looked between the two of them, noticing the caution in Caterina's eyes. He didn't particularly like the way that Dave was staring at her either. It reminded him too much of the men that he had arrested back in his cop days. "You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia," he spoke up in an attempt to pull Dave's attention away from Caterina.

Dave looked at him, reluctantly pulling his gaze from Caterina. "It feels like we're a long way from anywhere."

"Well, what drove you south?"

"Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather. I must've dropped thirty pound in sweat alone down here."

"I wish," Tony scoffed.

"No, first it was D.C. I had heard there might be some kind of refugee camp but, the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off of the highways, into the sticks, and kept on hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing."

"One guy told us there was a Coast Guard sitting in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands."

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country in Kansas, Nebraska."

"Nebraska?" Glenn asked.

"Low population, lots of guns," Tony said.

"Kinda makes sense."

"Ever been to Nebraska, kid?" Dave asked. "A reason they call 'em flyover states."

Tony laughed while Rick forced a small smile, taking another sip of his whiskey.

Caterina noticed Dave and Tony exchange looks before Dave looked back up at the group. "How about you guys?" he asked.

"Fort Benning, eventually," Rick said.

"I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but, um…we ran across a grunt who was stationed out at Benning. Said the place was overrun by lamebrains."

"Wait, Fort Benning is gone?" Glenn gasped. "Are you for real?"

"Sadly, I am."

Caterina wasn't surprised. She had already said that there was a possibility that Fort Benning wasn't operational. She'd been even more convinced of it after they saw the CDC. If it was her group that was stationed there, then there was no way that Fort Benning would still be standing. Her faction had been one of the best.

"Oddly, the truth is, there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab ahold of you when you sleep."

"If you sleep," Tony corrected him.

"Yeah, doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hat here. You holed up somewhere else?"

"Not really," Rick said.

Caterina looked at Rick approvingly. It seemed that he had realized that these two weren't to be trusted.

"Those your cars out front?" Dave tried again.

"Yeah," Glenn answered. "Why?"

Dave shrugged. "We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty. Clean. Where's all your gear?"

"We're with a larger group," Hershel said. "Out scouting. Thought we could use a drink."

"A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit."

No one said anything.

"Well, we're thinking of setting up around here," Dave said. "Is it safe?"

"It can be," Glenn said. "Although, I have killed a couple of walkers around here."

Caterina kicked Glenn in the leg. The kid jumped before turning to frown at her. She just looked back at him calmly, silently telling him with her eyes to keep that sort of information to himself. He apparently wasn't going to get the message by himself, so she would have to supply it for him.

"Walkers?" Dave asked. "That what you call 'em?"

"Yeah," Glenn muttered as he slowly looked away from Caterina.

"That's good. I like that. I like that better than lamebrains."

"More succinct," Tony added.

"Okay, Tony went to college."

"Two years."

Everyone fell into another bout of silence.

"So what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something?" Dave prodded. "That new development?"

Tony slid out of his seat and went to stand on the other side of the bar, shotgun in hand. "A trailer park or something? A farm?"

"Old McDonald had a farm…" Dave sang.

Tony chuckled.

"You got a farm?"

Before Rick could say anything, they all heard the sound of urinating. They looked over at Tony, who had zipped down his fly and was peeing against the wall under a payphone. He sang part of the Old McDonald farm song to himself. Caterina gave him a disgusted look before rolling her eyes and turning back to look at Dave. These guys just kept getting more and more charming by the second.

"Is it safe?" Dave asked. "It's gotta be. You got food? Water?"

"You got any more cooze? Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks," Tony said.

"Can't imagine why," Caterina said.

Tony chuckled, seemingly unoffended.

"Listen, pardon my friend," Dave apologized. "City kids—they got no tact. No disrespect. So, listen, Glenn—"

"We've said enough," Rick interrupted before he could ask anything else.

"Well, hang on a second. This farm—it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?"

"Yeah, real sweet," Tony agreed. He zipped up and strapped his shotgun to his shoulder as he turned around.

"How about a little southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp. Been having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We could pool our resources, our manpower."

"Look, I'm sorry," Rick apologized, not sounding sorry at all. "That's not an option."

Dave looked down. Caterina leaned forward to rest one arm on the bar while she placed the other on her hip. She positioned it so that she could wrap her fingers around her handgun without looking suspicious. She could feel the tension building up around these two, and she knew for sure that it was only a matter of time before they got fed up with this little facade of theirs.

"Doesn't sound like it could be a problem," Dave said.

"I'm sorry," Hershel said. "We can't."

"We can't take in any more," Rick added.

Dave looked down at his hands again and chuckled. "You guys are something else. I thought, you know, I thought we were friends."

Again, no one said anything.

"Look, we got people we gotta look out for too."

"We don't know anything about you," Rick pointed out.

"No, that's true. You don't know anything about us… You don't know what we had to go through out there, the things we've had to do. I bet you've had to do some of those same things yourself, am I right? 'Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So, come on, let's…let's take a nice, friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other."

"That's not gonna happen."

"Rick—"

"This is bullshit," Tony growled.

"Calm down," Rick said.

"Don't tell me to calm down. Don't _ever_ tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you four assholes in the head and _take_ your damn farm!"

Rick stood up, sensing the truth in Tony's words.

Dave jumped to his feet, holding his hand out to his friend. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody." He gave Tony a pointed look before patting Rick on the arm and walking over to the bar. He stepped up onto the stool that Tony had been in and hopped over the bar. "Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, Rick?"

Rick turned to face Dave, and Caterina saw Tony reach for his shotgun before she turned her attention on Dave as well. Dave took his handgun out from the back of his pants and placed it on the bar in front of him, careful not to place his finger near the trigger.

"We're just friends having a drink, that's all." He pulled his hand away from the gun. "Now, where is the good stuff?" He rubbed his hands together as he looked up and down the bar. "Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff. Let's see." He placed his hand on the bar near his handgun while he reached underneath. Rick placed his hand over his Python, ready to draw if need be. Dave saw this and smiled disarmingly before pulling out a bottle of Chardonnay. "Hey, look at that. That'll work." He opened the bottle and sighed heavily as he poured himself a drink. "You gotta understand. We can't stay out there. You know what it's like."

"Yeah, I do," Rick said. "But the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep lookin'."

"Keep looking," he repeated. "Where do you suggest we do that?"

"I dunno. I hear Nebraska's nice."

Dave laughed. "Nebraska. This guy."

Caterina knew what was coming next, so she pulled her handgun from the back of her pants and shot Dave between the eyes just as he started reaching for his gun. She then turned and fired out at Tony, shooting him once in the shoulder when she saw him pulling his shotgun around and a second time in the chest where his heart was.

Rick pulled out his Python and walked up to Tony's body, shooting him in the head. He looked up at Caterina and nodded in thanks.

Caterina nodded back before looking at Glenn, who had grabbed his shotgun and was staring between her and Tony's body in surprise. "That's why you don't talk to strangers."


	23. Chapter 22

**Author's Note**

I'm sorry it's taken so long to post this! I tried to do it yesterday as a sort of Christmas present to you guys, but my account decided to be an ass and wouldn't let me do anything. Kept saying that there was an Error. I kept trying to get back in all day, but it didn't open back up until today. So, anyway, to make up for the long way, I'm gonna try to finish the season Saturday, if not tomorrow.

Thanks for all the reviews and favorites! I'm glad so many people are enjoying this story.

As always, I hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

Caterina grabbed her crossbow from the counter and walked around Glenn to join Rick and Hershel by Tony's body. Glenn followed her closely, staring down at the body in shock. It was almost as if he'd never seen someone get shot before... Well, she supposed he hadn't really. Most of the 'people' that he saw get shot were walkers. She was pretty sure that they hadn't had to deal with many humans since this apocalypse thing started.

"Holy shit…" Glenn muttered.

"You all right?" Rick asked, having heard the shakiness in his voice.

"Yeah."

"Hershel?"

Hershel didn't say anything. He just looked between Tony's body and the blood splattered on the mirror behind the bar from when Caterina had shot Dave, breathing a bit heavily. He looked between Caterina and Rick and nodded. Now, Caterina _knew_ that Hershel hadn't seen anyone get shot before, so she wasn't surprised that he was shocked. What did surprise her was that he was _only_ breathing heavily. But, she supposed, he had quickly become desensitized towards everything after what went down at the barn. Seeing his wife and step-son get gunned down seemed to have finally made Hershel realize how shitty this new world was. It was like one, big war zone.

Rick and Caterina exchanged looks and nodded as well. It seemed that Rick was the only one who hadn't needed time to let what Caterina had done sink in. Though, with him having been a law enforcement officer, she supposed that he wouldn't have to. He'd probably shot plenty of people in his time, and not because he wanted to.

"Let's head back," Hershel suggested.

Rick agreed, but he paused to kneel down and grab Tony's shotgun. He felt around in his pockets for any more ammo and pulled out two shotgun shells. After he had tucked them into his pockets, Caterina started leading the way to the door. Glenn veered off to go behind the bar and grabbed Dave's handgun. Once he had it, he hurried back around to their side and handed the gun to Hershel, who took it a little hesitantly.

Caterina froze as she saw headlights shining into the bar, followed by the sound of a car approaching.

Without saying a word, they separated into two groups and ducked down beneath the windows at the front of the store. Caterina silently placed her crossbow on the ground next to Rick so that she had both hands free for her handgun.

They listened as the car pulled up in front of the bar, and two car doors opened.

"Dave? Tony?" a male's voice called out before lowing his voice to speak to his companions. "They said over here?"

"Yeah," another man said.

"I'm tellin' you, man," a third voice said, "I heard shots."

"I saw roamers two streets over. Might be more around here."

"It's hot. We gotta get outta here."

"Dave! Tony!"

"Shut up, you idiot! You wanna attract 'em? Just stick close. We're gonna find 'em."

Caterina shifted so that she could look up into the window, and she saw two silhouettes passing by the front of the bar.

"Dude, he said stay close."

"Tony?"

The figures moved further down the bar towards the window that Hershel and Glenn were hiding beneath. Caterina motioned for them to stay completely still. They waited for a while, expecting them to leave to look for their friends elsewhere. But they continued to hear their footsteps outside. Caterina nodded to Rick to look out of the window next to him to check if they were still outside. Rick pulled back the curtain slightly to do as she asked. He let it fall back into place a few seconds later, and he shook his head. Caterina then nodded for Glen to do the same. He did and gave the all clear.

Rick and Caterina silently shifted over to Hershel and Glenn.

"Why won't they leave?" Glenn whispered almost desperately once the two were close enough to hear him.

"Would you?" Hershel retorted quietly.

"We can't sit here any longer," Rick muttered. "Let's head out the back and make a run to the car."

The others nodded and started to head towards the back of the bar. As soon as they started to move, however, gunfire sounded from outside. Fearing that someone had spotted them, the five of them quickly fell back into their earlier hiding places. They stayed frozen for a moment, waiting for someone to fire another shot. When nothing happened, Caterina stood up to look out of the top of the window.

She watched as three men gathered around outside the corner. One was fairly young, maybe sixteen or seventeen-years-old. She was kind of surprised that the other two had brought someone so young out with them. Usually, the kids stayed at home to watch after the others. But she supposed that this kid must be a good shot, otherwise they probably would've left him behind.

"What happened?"

"Roamers. I nailed 'em."

The men started turning towards the bar, so Caterina pulled back before they could see her.

"They disappeared, but their car's still here."

"I cleared those buildings. You guys get this one?"

"No."

"Me neither."

"We're looking for Dave and Tony and no one checks the damn bar?"

Caterina ducked back down beneath the window and exchanged looks with Rick as she readied her handgun. They both understood that, when these guys came in, they wouldn't be able to let their guards down even the slightest bit. Once they found out what they had done to Dave and Tony, they were sure to shoot them up. Caterina glanced over at Glenn and Hershel to check to see if they were ready. Hershel seemed prepared, but Glenn looked to be silently freaking out. She started to mouth something to him, but she stopped as the door started to open. That was when Glenn slid out and pushed himself back against the door, closing it again.

"What?"

"Someone pushed it shut. There's someone in there."

Caterina gave a silent, heavy sigh while Rick sent Glenn an irritable look. The young Asian looked sheepishly between the two of them and Hershel. He'd just acted on instinct; he hadn't been thinking about the repercussions.

"Yo, is someone in there?" one of the men called out. "Yo, if someone's in there, we don't want no trouble. We're just lookin' for our friends."

"What do we do?"

"Bum rush the door?"

"No, we don't know how many are there. Just relax," one of the men muttered to the others before raising his voice again. "We don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friend. If something happened, tell us. This place is crawling with corpses. If you can help us not get killed, I'd appreciate it."

The five inside kept perfectly silent, but Rick started shifting restlessly next to Caterina. She looked over and watched carefully as he stared up at where the voices were coming from. He looked like he wanted to say something, but was trying to talk himself out of it. She knew that he knew that, even if they did try to talk to them, once they found out what they did to their buddies, they wouldn't be so willing to let them tell their side of the story. They would just start shooting.

"You're bugging," another of the men scoffed. "I'm tellin' you, nobody's in there."

"Someone guard the door. If they're in there, they might know where Dave and Tony are."

Rick opened up and closed his mouth, still wanting to say something but hesitant to do so. He looked at Caterina, and she shook her head, silently telling him to keep his mouth shut. But he had apparently already made up his mind, because he opened his mouth and shouted, "They drew on us!"

Caterina closed her eyes with a sighing breath.

"Dave and Tony in there? They alive?" the same man from before asked as he and his buddies moved back to the door.

Rick hesitated. He was sweating now, obviously having realized his mistake. "No," he admitted after a moment.

"They killed Dave and Tony."

"Come on, man, let's go," what sounded like the teenager urged his friends.

"No, I'm not leaving. I'm not telling Jane. I'm not gonna go back and tell them that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar."

"Your friends drew on us!" Rick shouted in defense. "They gave us no choice!" Caterina looked up at Rick pleadingly, but he kept talking, digging each of their graves with every word. "I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things…we wish we didn't have to. But it's like that now! You know that! So let's just chalk this up to what it was: wrong place, wrong—"

Someone fired at the the door, cutting Rick off.

Glenn ducked his head as the glass rained down on him.

Rick stood up after the second gunshot and fired out of the busted window pane. "Get outta here!" he shouted to his friends over the sound of gunfire. "Go!"

Hershel and Glenn made a run for the back of the bar while Caterina ducked around Rick to stand on the other side of the doors. She wasn't about to leave him to deal with these guys on his own. She checked her magazine, making a mental note of how many rounds she had left. While she reassembled her gun, she looked at Rick. He had ducked back down to remove the empty shells from his chamber and replace them with the few extra bullets that he had on him. He glanced at Caterina with an apologetic expression before he turned his attention on the doors again.

"Hey!" Rick shouted. "We know this isn't gonna end well! There's nothin' in it for any of us! You guys just-just back off, no one else gets hurt!"

He paused to wait for a reply, but none came.

There was a clatter from the back of the bar, and Caterina whipped her head around to stare towards the sound. Glenn was looking back at them from behind a piano, his eyes wide with fear. Caterina nodded for him to stay where he was before she shot out of her safe spot to join Hershel in the back of the room. Luckily, it seemed that no one outside saw her, because she didn't hear any gunfire behind her. She reached for the door that lead into the store room before hesitating. If they were in the store room, as soon as she opened the door, they would start firing. And Hershel was standing almost directly behind her. If she ducked out of the way, he would surely get hit. She looked back at him and motioned for him to step to the side.

She waited until he was out of range of the door before she opened it. She raised her gun warily and started down the short staircase leading out to the storage room, wincing when the steps creaked under her weight. As soon as she was clear of the stairs, she started making her way through the storage area, checking every corner and every shadow for signs of life.

Her head snapped to the back doors as she heard a bottle clinking.

"Shit…" a voice that she recognized from before muttered.

She saw the silhouette of two of the men through the window. She watched as the doorknob turned, thinking over what she could do to prevent them from getting inside the bar. Just as the started to open door, her finger seemed to squeeze instinctively around the trigger and a shot fired at the door, the bullet embedding itself in the wood. The door slammed closed with a curse from the men outside, and Caterina watched as the figures disappeared from view.

"Cat!" Rick and Glenn shouted worriedly from the front of the bar.

"I'm all right!" Caterina called back.

She waited a moment, gun poised at the door, to check to see if they would return to try the back door again. When she didn't hear anything from the back alley, she moved to stand beside the door where she was hidden from view but still able to cover the entrance.

She noticed a figure at the front of the storage room, coming down the stairs, and she looked up to see Hershel coming through to where she stood.

"Rick wants you to try for the car," Hershel relayed. "I'll cover you."

Caterina nodded, already thinking up a strategy in her head. "Can you shoot?" she asked while going over a mental layout of the area.

"I can."

"Good. Follow my lead."

Caterina moved back out in front of the door and reached for the doorknob. She paused for the second time to look at Hershel, who seemed to read her mind and stepped aside. She nodded with a slight smile and opened the door. She waited a moment to see if there would be any gunfire. When nothing happened, she carefully stepped out into the alley. She glanced up and down the alleyway, her gun poised. Once she had made the all clear, she motioned for Hershel to stay by the door while she started down to the end of the alley where there was a dumpster with a few trash bins. She would be able to take cover there while she checked the street around the corner.

Just before she could reach the trash area, a gunshot sounded from behind her. She felt a familiar, searing pain on her right arm, and she immediately dove for cover behind the trash bins. She fell back against the fence and gave an annoyed, pained groan. This was the second time that she'd been shot in the arm in the past week! Granted, it was the other arm this time, but the point still stood!

There was another gunshot from the back doors of the bar followed by a thud at the other end of the alley.

Whoever it was that was moaning in pain now obviously hadn't been shot before, because it sounded almost like he was dying. And Caterina was pretty certain that, if it had been Hershel that shot him like she thought, he hadn't received a fatal hit. Speaking of getting hit, Caterina took in a deep breath and looked down at her arm. She let the breath out in a relieved sigh when she saw that the bullet had only grazed her. She'd gotten grazed plenty of times in her life, so she didn't think anything of it when she pulled out her switchblade and used it to cut a rip in the bottom of her shirt. She returned the switchblade to its holster and ripped off a large strip from her shirt so that her midriff was showing partially. She tied the strip around her arm as a makeshift bandage, having to use her teeth to finish the knot. She had done plenty of temporary bandages like this before, to the point that she was almost a master at it.

"What happened?" she heard Rick ask from the back door of the bar.

"He fired," Hershel explained. "He must've hit Cat. She's behind the dumpster."

The door creaked open, and there was the shuffle of footsteps as someone made their way down the alley to her.

"You hit?" Rick hissed.

"It's just a graze," she answered back lowly. Not a second later, Rick came around the trash bins. "Did someone slip a magnet in my pocket or something?" she asked as he settled in next to her. When Rick just gave her a confused look, she continued, "Because it seems like I'm the one always getting shot at."

Rick smiled slightly. "I guess you're just lucky."

"I must've broken a mirror or something," she muttered. "Or spilled some salt."

He raised an eyebrow. "I didn't think you were superstitious."

"I'm usually not," she explained. "But it's either that or God just wants me dead."

Rick gave an amused huffed. "If God wanted you dead, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be here right now."

"Guess he just likes seeing me squirm then." Rick actually laughed at that, and Caterina grinned in a self-satisfied way. "The car's just around the corner. You wanna make a break for it?" she asked, deciding to change back to the subject at hand.

Rick nodded. "Yeah. On the count of three."

Caterina nodded and shifted onto her feet.

"One…two…three…"

On cue, the two stood up and took a step around the dumpster, readying themselves to take off running towards the car. As soon as they did, however, someone started firing from the roofs across the street. They ducked back down behind the dumpster to avoid the shots.

"There goes that plan," she murmured.

They peaked around the dumpster as a car came squealing towards the alley.

"Let's get out of here," one of the men called to the man on the roof. "Roamers are all over the place! Hurry up! We gotta get outta here!"

"What about Sean?"

"They shot him! We gotta go! Roamers are everywhere!"

"We're leaving?"

"Jump!"

The man on the roof—actually the teenager, judging by the lanky silhouette—hurried over to the edge of the roof and climbed up onto the ledge. His comrade called for him to hurry, and the boy jumped across to the next roof before dropping down onto a metal ledge underneath him. He grunted, and Caterina saw him slide off of the hanging before he disappeared from view followed by a shriek of pain.

"Dude didn't make it," Glenn said.

"Help me! Help me!" the boy shouted.

"I gotta go! I'm sorry!" the other man called back before driving away.

"No! No, don't leave! No! No!"

"Get Hershel," Rick instructed.

Caterina nodded and stood back up, turning to go up the alley. She paused when she saw a group of walkers coming towards them from the field that she had been shot at from. The man was still there, lying injured on the ground. She watched as the walkers started gathering around on him. She thought for a moment that she should help him—enemy or not, she didn't feel right leaving him to be eaten alive by walkers. But, as the walkers started to converge around him, she realized that it wouldn't do much good for her to start shooting now. There was nothing she could do for him without drawing the attention of more walkers. So, instead, she hurried over to where Glenn and Hershel were standing.

"Come on, we gotta go," she said as she started urging them out into the alley.

Before she could lead them more than a few steps away, they heard the pain cries as the walkers started in on the man. Glenn and Hershel both turned towards the sound and stood shocked for a moment as they watched the man struggling fruitlessly as the walkers took large bites from his face and neck. Glenn didn't need more than a moment before he turned and started running towards the other end of the alley. But Hershel didn't look away until Caterina grabbed his arm and started to pull him.

Hershel quickly fell into pace with Caterina as they followed Glenn around the corner. "The gunfire must've attracted the walkers. Where's Rick?" he asked.

"He ran across," Caterina informed him.

"Well, hell, we can't go without him."

Caterina and Glenn followed Hershel over to where Rick was standing on the other side of the street. She froze as she saw the situation that the boy from before was in. He'd fallen onto a dumpster placed next to a spiked fence and had apparently gotten his leg stuck on one of the spikes. It went straight through his calf, just below his kneecap. Rick was looking him over, trying to find a way to get him free without hurting him further while at the same time ignoring the boy's shrill cries.

"We have to go now," Hershel tried to urge Rick.

"No!" the boy cried fearfully as he threw himself back on the lid of the dumpster in pain.

"Shhh!" Rick tried to shush him. His shrieks definitely weren't helping with all of the walkers that had apparently been drawn by their gunfight.

"I'm sorry, son," Hershel apologized to the boy before turning to Rick. "We have to go," he repeated more urgently.

"No, don't leave me, please," the boy begged.

"We have to go."

"We can't," Rick argued.

"He was just shooting at us!" Glenn argued.

"He's a kid!"

"This place is crawling with walkers!"

"Rick's right," Caterina chimed in. "We can't just leave him here like this."

Hershel seemed to understand that she and Rick weren't going to just let this go, so he started looking over the boy's leg. "The fence went clean through. There's no way we can get the leg off in one piece," he informed them.

Rick tried shaking the fence, as if that would somehow shake the boy loose, but it only ended up making him scream louder.

"Shut up!" Rick snapped. "Shut up or I will shoot you!"

The boy immediately stopped sobbing, though he continued to thrive around in pain

Hershel grabbed Rick by the arm and lead him away while Caterina and Glenn went to the boy's side. She reached around the fence to place a comforting hand on the boy's uninjured leg, although she knew that it wouldn't do much good. But she felt that she should at least do something. She could very much imagine what kind of pain he was in, due to what happened to her leg, and her heart went out to him for it. She wouldn't wish that kind of pain on her worst enemy.

"That may be the answer," Hershel muttered. "We're not gonna get the leg off without tearin' the muscle to shreds. He may bleed out."

Glenn grabbed the boy's foot and raised it a bit, causing the boy to cry. Glenn immediately pulled his hand back and raised them both in apology.

Caterina reached out and smacked Glenn upside the head. "Glenn!" she hissed.

"I'm sorry!"

"Maybe we should put him down," Hershel suggested.

Rick looked at him in horror.

"I don't wanna see any more killing, but this is cruel."

"Can't we just take the leg off?" Glenn asked.

Rick looked at the boy thoughtfully before turning to Glenn. "That hatchet still in the car?" he asked.

"No, no, no!" the boy cried. "Don't! Don't! Don't cut off my leg, please! Please, not my leg!"

Rick walked over to Caterina and grabbed her buck knife from its holster so that he could show it to Hershel. "Will this sever the bone?"

"I'll have to sever the ligaments below the kneecap, cut above the tibia," Hershel said. "He's gonna loose his lower leg." As he was talking, he started to remove his button-up shirt to prepare for the procedure. "When we get clear of here, we're gonna have to find some tinder, cauterize the wound so he doesn't bleed out."

"All right, no choice. Hurry up."

"Oh God…" the boy sobbed. "Oh God!"

Rick walked around the fence and held the boy down on the dumpster.

"Hand me that stick," Hershel instructed Glenn.

Glenn grabbed a stick from the ground and placed it on the dumpster next to the boy while Hershel wrapped his shirt around the boy's upper thigh. The boy tried to stop them, but Rick forced him on back down on his back.

Caterina looked at Glenn. "Give me my crossbow," she ordered.

Glenn took her crossbow from his shoulder and handed it to her. She tucked her handgun into the back of her jeans and moved out onto the street to face the walkers coming towards them from the field from the other corner. She had heard them coming up over the sound of the boy's screams. Instead of watching Hershel cut off the poor kid's leg with just her buck knife, she decided that she would help Glenn take care of the walkers and ensure that they didn't get too close during the procedure.

"Guys, walkers," Glenn warned.

The boy screamed before he was muffled, assumingly by Rick.

"Hurry up!"

Caterina and Glenn did their best to take out whatever walkers they could from their position on the street. She tried to knock her arrows as quickly as possible while Glenn took down whatever walkers he could during her brief pauses.

Caterina paused to look back over her shoulder when she heard gunfire from the alley that Rick and the boy were in.

"Hershel, how are we doin' over there?" Rick called.

"I need more hands!" Hershel shouted. "Easy! Easy!"

"Come o,n we gotta go!" Glenn said as he and Caterina continued fire on the walkers approaching from across the street. "We're almost out of ammo! We don't have much time! Come on, we gotta go!"

"I can't hold 'em off! Hershel, do it now!" Rick called.

"Forget cutting it off!" Caterina snapped. "We don't have time!"

"What do you suggest we do?" Hershel asked.

Caterina slung her crossbow on her shoulder and jogged over to the fence. She nudged Rick out of the way and grabbed the boy's calf. Before anyone could stop her, she forced the leg up with as much strength as she could muster at that angle, causing the point of the fence to tear through his leg again. The boy screamed bloody murder for just a moment before he passed out from the pain.

"Jesus!" Glenn yelped.

"Grab him!" Caterina instructed.

Rick grabbed the boy and pulled him off the dumpster, throwing him over his shoulder to better carry him. He followed close behind Caterina as she and the others ran to Hershel's car. Caterina threw open the back door and helped Rick lower the boy inside before sliding in herself. Once she was settled, Rick ran around to the driver's side while Hershel took the passenger seat. As soon as Glenn had climbed into the backseat with Caterina and the boy, Rick threw the car in drive and raced down the street away from the walkers.

* * *

It had been well past midnight when everything went down so, by the time they neared the farm, the sun had already come up. The boy—Randall, from what he had told them when he woke up a few minutes after they left town—was fast asleep, propped up between Caterina and Glenn. Rick had instructed Caterina to tie a rag around his eyes to keep him from seeing how to get to the farm. While they seemed to be on the same page regarding the boy's injuries, it seemed that Rick didn't trust him. But Caterina could see why he wouldn't. After all, he had been a part of the same group as Dave and Tony, who hadn't exactly been the best of humanity.

As Rick pulled into the front yard of the farmhouse, Caterina could see T-Dog, Daryl, Andrea, Dale, and Shane watching in surprise. It looked like they had been getting ready to go out after them. They had been gone far longer than they should have been, and it seemed that the others had correctly assumed that they had run into some trouble in town.

The rest of the group came outside at the sound of the car pulling up,

Rick was the first out, and his son ran straight to him and threw his arms around him in relief. Rick held Carl to him while he continued forward a few steps to meet his wife. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she immediately fell into his embrace. Hershel and Glenn were the next to get out. Maggie ran forward, and for a moment it seemed like she was running for her dad. But she passed by him like she hadn't even seen him, instead running forward to latch onto Glenn.

Hershel smiled slightly at this before he started up towards the house. "Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery," he instructed.

Patricia nodded and followed Hershel into the house.

Lori looked at Rick in worry. "Are you hurt?"

"No, but what happened to you?" Rick asked as he looked over her face. In the time that they'd been gone, she had somehow acquired quite a few scraps. It looked like she'd gotten into some kind of accident.

"I was in a car accident," Lori explained.

"Accident? How?"

"I was looking for you."

"Snuck out on her own," Shane jumped in. "I brought her back."

"Are you crazy?" Rick gasped. "You could've—"

"Who the hell is that?" T-Dog interrupted Rick's worry, pointing at the boy in the backseat with Caterina.

Everyone turned their gazes on the two passengers.

"That's Randall," Glenn answered.

Caterina stared out at the others for a moment before she moved Randall so that he was propped back against the seat, allowing her to get out of the car without disturbing him. But she didn't stray far. She didn't particularly trust the group to take too well to their decision to save Randall, and she especially didn't trust Shane to be anywhere near him. If he was so worried about keeping Lori and Carl safe, he wouldn't hesitate to shoot Randall, even if he wasn't an actual threat.

"You all right?" Daryl asked.

Caterina looked over at him, admittedly surprised that he would display his worry so openly in front of the others. He was looking her over with an obvious gleam of worry in his eyes, searching for injuries. His gaze paused on her bandaged arm—the bandage was almost completely red now, having become soaked in blood—and again at the bottom of her ripped shirt.

"I'm fine," she assured him. She nodded to Randall. "He's the one who needs tending to. Fell on a spiked fence."

Hershel and Patricia came back out then with Hershel's medicine bag and a basket full of supplies.

"Let's get him over there," Hershel said.

Caterina nodded and reached back into the car, grabbing Randall's arm to put it over her shoulder. Once she had a good hold of him, she pulled him out of the car gently. Daryl came forward and placed his crossbow on the roof of Hershel's car before taking Randall's other arm. Caterina nodded to him in thanks, and the two of them followed Hershel and Patricia out to the shed.

* * *

Everyone but Daryl, Hershel, and Patricia were gathered in the dining room, talking about Randall and what they were going to do with him. Hershel and Patricia were still tending to the boy's leg, and Caterina had no idea where Daryl was. He'd just walked off as soon as Randall was in shed. She had noticed that he looked deeply upset about something, which kind of worried her. Her worry was only backed up by the fact that, when Rick had pulled up into the front yard, Caterina had noticed that Daryl's tent was missing from camp. She wondered if something had happened while she was gone that made him want to leave camp.

"We couldn't just leave him behind," Rick said, his voice pulling Caterina out of her thoughts. "He would've bled out—if he lived that long."

"It's gotten bad in town," Glenn added.

"What do we do with him?" Andrea wondered.

Hershel came into the room then, wiping blood off his hands. "I repaired his calf muscle as best as I could, but he'll probably have nerve damage," he informed them. "Won't be on his feet for at least a week."

"When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way," Rick explained.

Caterina looked over her shoulder towards the door as the screen opened and saw Daryl. He met her gaze and nodded to her. She smiled slightly before turning back to the room. She wasn't surprised when he didn't move away from the door, instead choosing to settle in next to it. Since he had moved his tent away, he obviously didn't want much to do with the group anymore, for whatever reason.

"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" Andrea asked.

"He'll have a fightin' chance," Rick argued.

"We just gonna let him go?" Shane added in. "He knows where we are."

"Rick had me blindfold him," Caterina spoke up. "He hasn't seen anything that could tell him how to get back here once we let him go. He's not a threat."

"Not a threat?" he scoffed. "How many of 'em were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of 'em hostage, but they just ain't gonna come lookin'?"

"They left him for dead," Rick said. "_No one_ is lookin'."

"We should still post a guard," T-Dog proposed.

"He's out cold right now," Hershel explained. "Will be for hours."

"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy," Shane huffed as he started out of the room. "Look at this, folks. We back in Fantasyland."

Hershel stepped after him. "You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet," he pointed out, causing Shane to stop and turn. "Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all—this is _my_ farm. Now, I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So, do us both a favor—keep your mouth shut."

Shane didn't seem at all affected by his words. He just looked around, sighed, and left.

"Look, we're not gonna do anythin' about it today," Rick continued once Shane was gone. "Let's just cool off."

Everyone murmured their agreements and started to get up and leave. Caterina pushed off the wall that she was leaning against and left first, with Daryl right behind her. He followed as she made her way back to the car. She ducked into the backseat and grabbed her crossbow from where she had dropped it on the floor during the ride back to the farm.

"What the hell happened out there?" Daryl questioned.

"These two assholes stumbled across us when we were in the bar," she explained. "They drew on us, so I shot them. Randall and two of their men came looking for them. Hershel shot one of them, and the other left after Randall got hurt."

She strapped her crossbow to her back and started over to the camp. Daryl followed.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Why, because I got shot again or because I shot two men?" she threw back unthinkingly.

Daryl didn't say anything. He just kept close behind her as Caterina made her way to her tent. She pulled back the flap and ducked inside, not at all surprised when Daryl trailed in after her after a second's pause. He paused by the door while Caterina crossed the short distance to the back of the tent and tossed her crossbow in the far corner.

"I was a Marines in the military, Daryl," she said as she pulled her handgun from the back of her pants and set it down next to her crossbow. "I've gotten shot plenty of times, and I've killed plenty of men. Besides, they were going to shoot Rick. I wasn't about to let that happen."

Daryl huffed. "What is it with you and him?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why're you always riskin' your life for him?"

Caterina frowned in confusion. "He's a friend," she answered slowly. "I'm not just going to let him die."

"Rick's a grown man. He can take care of himself."

Caterina turned to face Daryl fully, her arms crossed. "What is this about?" she asked. She knew that this couldn't just be about what happened in town. It sounded as if Daryl had been thinking some things over while she was gone, and the only way that he had found to bring it up was to start in on her tendency to jump at the opportunity to save people's lives. She knew that she didn't have any sort of obligation to do it; she just couldn't stand the thought of her friends getting hurt when there was something that she could do to stop it. That aspect of her personality had only been strengthened during her time in the military.

Daryl tossed his hands and started pacing her tent. "It's about you always jump' in front of bullets for these people, like some damn bodyguard! How many times have you put your neck on the line for these assholes?

"How many times have you?" she shot back.

Daryl gave her a look that clearly stated that they were talking about her, not him. But he did seem to understand what she was getting at. With how everything was nowadays, once you let yourself get attached to someone, you did everything in your power to keep them safe, even if that meant risking your life.

"That don't matter anymore," Daryl said. "I'm done playin' errand boy."

"Is that why you moved out of camp?"

He didn't say anything; he just looked away guiltily.

Caterina sighed and took a step forward. "Look, I understand you're upset about Sophia—"

"Don't bring her into this," Daryl snapped. "She ain't got nothin' to do with it."

"She has everything to do with it," she said sternly. "Tell me, did you ever think about pulling away before we found out what happened to her?"

Again, Daryl was silent, but Caterina could tell that she'd just hit the nail on the head.

She dropped the stern look on her face in favor of a more understanding one. She stepped forward so that she was standing almost directly in front of Daryl. He took a small step back in response, but he didn't take his eyes off of her.

"I understand you're upset," she started again. "First it was Merle, now Sophia…"

Daryl's jaw tensed at the mention of his brother, but he kept quiet, letting her continue.

"But that doesn't mean you pull away from everyone else just because you're upset."

Daryl scoffed. "What do you know about it?"

"I know, believe me. I've lost a lot of people to this new world. I've seen friends of mine, people that I care a great deal about, reanimated as walking corpses. I've even had to shoot a few of them, and for the safety of _this group_. Even my family has probably…" She trailed off as her throat tightened at the thought of her family.

She hadn't heard nor seen any indication of her family since this whole thing started. Her dad and brother were excellent survivalists, but only she and her dad had been trained in the military. Gabriele was a pacifist. The only time that Caterina had seen him hurt anyone was when some boys from her school picked on her. He was strong, but he had too much of a kind heart. If he hadn't change his ways, there was no way he would be alive now. As for his fiancée…she was too sickly. If Gabriele fell, she was sure to follow. And Caterina's parents…they were strong, but they were old. They would only be able to keep themselves alive for so long without help.

Daryl stared at her as she got lost in her thoughts of her family, and the anger fell from his face in realization. He hadn't asked her anything about her family, or her past—come to think of it, no one really had. The only thing that any of them really knew about her was that she had been in the Marines and was an extraordinary fighter, but that was mostly just because it was so obvious. Caterina didn't open up much. Then again, neither did Daryl, or anyone else in their group for that matter.

Up until that moment, Daryl hadn't even thought about what Caterina had gone through since the start of all of this. He'd just focused on what he had lost. He hadn't thought about the possibility of her having lost people too.

"I'm not trying to guilt you into staying," Caterina continued finally. "I just…" She trailed off again and turned her gaze to the side with a sigh. "We've lost so many people already—Merle, Amy, Jim, Jacqui, Sophia… I don't want to lose anyone else. Especially not you." She muttered the last bit as silently as she could, but she was positive that Daryl still heard it as she turned her gaze back on him and saw the almost guilty look in his eye. There was something else there too…relief, maybe?

Daryl nodded slowly. "Okay."

Caterina smiled gratefully.

"But I ain't movin' my tent again. If any needs me, you're just gonna have to come to me."

Caterina nodded. "I think that's fair."

Daryl nodded again and stared at her a moment longer before he turned to leave the tent. He paused after pulling back the flap of the tent and looked back over his shoulder at her. He let the flap fall back into place as he moved back over to her. He reached out, cupping the side of her face, and kissed her. She didn't waste any time returning it this time. And she understood the meaning behind it. Daryl didn't seem the type to kiss very often, so there was always a reason for him doing it. This time, it was an affirmation that he wasn't going to leave. He was going to stay as long as he could, to prevent them both from suffering from any more loss.


	24. Chapter 23

The next week passed by pretty quickly. Everyone had settled back into their usual routines, with the exception of the innovators of the group going out looking for people—first it was Sophia, then it was Hershel… It was almost odd that they didn't have any more people to be out searching for.

Caterina had taken to helping out the women with their daily chores. She'd even gotten roped into making dinner for a few nights. Daryl had found it hilarious, seeing her performing menial chores like a common housewife. He had even dared to comment on how fitting it looked, her washing dishes like the other women, which had earned him a soggy dishtowel in the face. While she found the chores relaxing compared to going out and risking her life, she ached to be doing something more. But there wasn't really much for her to do now that all of their issues had been resolved.

Well, apart from one issue: Randall.

Almost everyone had been on edge the whole week. They still didn't seem to agree with Rick's decision to keep Randall locked up in the shed. Not because they didn't think that it was right to lock him up like that—on the contrary, they thought it was a great decision—but because they didn't feel comfortable having him so close to the group. They still seemed to think that he was a threat, even though he had done nothing to support this. In fact, the whole time that he'd been incarcerated, he hadn't said more than a few words. He hadn't even complained about how they were treating him.

The only time that Randall ever really spoke was when Caterina went to visit him.

She hadn't said anything to Rick about it, or anyone else for that matter, but she didn't agree with how they were treating the poor kid. She understood their worry. After all, they'd heard the story of what happened at Harnel's. But she thought they were being a little too paranoid, and that was saying something coming from her. She was cautious around everyone she met, because she knew that there was always the possibility that they weren't as friendly as they appeared. But Caterina had always prided herself in being a good judge of character. It was one of the reasons why she didn't feel bad about labeling Dave and Tony as hostiles right off the bat like she had done. But Randall didn't appear to be anything like them. He seemed nice enough, if not a little fearful.

Over the week, she had gotten to know Randall pretty well. He didn't talk very much about himself, or about the people from his camp, but he talked a lot about his family. He hadn't had any siblings; it had been just him and his mother. He never explained what had happened to his father, but Caterina got the feeling that it was a touchy subject.

It was obvious that he adored his mother. He talked about her as if she were some kind of saint. But he always spoke about her with a twinge of sadness too. He had explained that he lost her towards the start of the outbreak. She hadn't exactly been cut out for the kind of life that the survivors now had to live. Randall said that, in a way, it was a good thing that she wasn't still alive. He said that it would break her heart seeing what people had been forced to resort to in order to survive, what _he_ had been forced to resort to.

Caterina did her best to prepare Randall for the day that Rick would take him out and leave him to find his own way back to his camp. She already knew that he was a good shot, but he didn't seem to have what it took to survive for long on his own. So she gave him as much advice as she could. She told him the best ways to keep himself hidden, how to feed himself, the best way to escape from walkers if he ran into any… She had pretty much done what her brother had done for her when she was younger. She gave Randall the know-how that he would need to survive in this world.

She didn't see him as a little brother. If anything, the only people that she saw as family were the Grimes. Instead, she just saw Randall as another person that she needed to protect.

Despite that, however, she didn't let herself get too close to him. While she was certain that she was right in thinking he was a good kid, there was always the possibility that he wasn't always as nice as he seemed. If something happened where she would have to start treating him as the enemy, she didn't want any personal ties keeping her from doing what needed to be done.

* * *

The day finally came for Rick to take Randall out. He had healed enough that he was able to walk without limping too badly, so Rick felt that it was time for him to leave.

Caterina got up early that day to prepare a small breakfast. She didn't bother eating herself. Instead, she took the meal—a small portion of scrambled eggs and two slices of bacon—out to the shed.

T-Dog stood in front of the shed door, shotgun in hand. He and Andrea had been made to act as guards since Randall's first night in camp. It was "in case Randall decided to make a run for it," as Shane had put it. Personally, Caterina thought it was an excuse. Shane just wanted the others to keep thinking of Randall as a threat so that, when and if the time came, he wouldn't get any objections for killing him. But Caterina was the only one who thought this. Even Dale, who disliked Shane just as much as she did, thought that she was being a bit presumptuous.

If Rick knew what Shane had done, how unstable he was, Caterina was sure that he would see the truth in what she had to say about Shane. But she hadn't had the gumption to tell him yet. In truth, Caterina had actually completely forgotten about what she found when she took that run up to the high school. But she was going to tell him today, before he and Shane took Randall away. If he was going to be out with Shane on his own, he needed to know how dangerous he was.

"Hey," Caterina called as she neared the shed.

T-Dog looked over at the sound of her voice and nodded to her. "Hey."

"How's he doing?"

"Good, from what I can tell. Rick and Shane are getting' ready to take him out now. About time too. I'm getting' sick and tired of playin' guard dog."

"Why don't you take a break then? I'll take over until they get here."

T-Dog nodded thankfully. "All right. Thanks, Cat."

"No problem."

T-Dog tossed her the keys and started walking back up to the house. Caterina watched him go for a moment before she unlocked the padlock on the door.

Randall looked up from where he had been chained to the wall. It had been done as an extra precaution, after Rick found out that Caterina had been visiting him. He seemed to think that she was too reckless where Randall was concerned and, as a result, had decided that, if she wasn't going to take the necessary steps to protect herself, he would do it for her. While she appreciated his concern, Caterina thought he was being a little ridiculous. But that was what paranoia did to people. It made them go to extremes in order to prevent the "maybes" of every situation.

"Brought you some breakfast," Caterina said in lieu of a greeting as she stepped into the shed and handed the plate to the boy.

"Thanks," Randall muttered.

She grabbed the chair next to Randall and moved it so that she could sit down a ways out in front of him. She didn't do it because she worried that he would attack her if she sat too close to him; she did it to give him a bit of space. While he seemed to be comfortable enough in her presence, he always got anxious if she stood too close. He never explained why, and she never asked. She just always made sure to keep a fair bit of distance between them.

"How're you feeling?" she asked.

"Better. It still hurts, but not nearly as much as before."

She nodded. "Good."

She was silent for a moment, watching as Randall wolfed down every last scrap on the plate in front of him. The others hadn't really been feeding him very well. They thought it would be a waste to feed him much, since they were going to let him go in a week anyway. So Caterina had resorted to sneaking away during dinner and giving her own portions to him. So far, Daryl was the only one who had caught her doing it. Luckily, he had agreed not to say anything to the others. While he didn't agree with her about Randall, he didn't think that he posed much of a threat. After all, he was scrawny. It would be easy for Caterina to overpower him should anything happen.

"Listen," Caterina started, "I'm sorry about ripping your leg off the fence like that."

Randall looked up at her. "Don't be. Thanks to you, I got to keep my leg."

"Actually, that's thanks to Hershel. You would've ended up losing the use of your leg if he wasn't so good at his job."

He nodded. "True. But you didn't let 'em leave me. So thank you."

She smiled slightly. "Don't mention it." She stood up and spun the chair back into its place against the wall next to Randall. "Rick and Shane will be here soon to take you out," she informed him. "In the meantime, I'll be right outside if you need me."

Randall nodded again.

She stepped back out of the shed, closing the door behind her. She didn't bother locking it, seeing as Rick and Shane would be there soon for the kid.

"Hey," Rick called out as he approached the shed.

"Hey," Caterina returned. "Where's Shane?"

"Gettin' the car." He nodded to the shed. "He ready?"

Caterina nodded. "Yeah," she muttered distractedly. "Could I talk to you for a second, Rick?"

He frowned worriedly and crossed his arms over his chest. "Of course. What's up?"

"It's about Shane."

Rick sighed almost exasperatedly. "It's all right, Cat. You don't have to say anything. Lori already told me."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "She did?"

"Yeah. Dale told her about what you found."

Typical. Caterina loved Dale—he was a great man. But he was like a nosy grandfather, always sticking his nose in his family's business where it didn't belong. And he gossiped more than an urban housewife.

"I'm sorry,"" she apologized, even though she knew that didn't have anything to apologize for. It wasn't like she was the reason why Rick's best friend had gone crazy.

"It's all right. No need to apologize. I've had my suspicions for a while now. I didn't wanna believe it, but…" Rick trailed off, sighing as he put his hands on his hips. "I'm more upset that you went to the high school by yourself, without any back up. You could've gotten killed."

"It was risky, I know. But I needed to be certain before I started labeling Shane as dangerous."

"I understand. Just…don't do anything reckless like that again, all right?"

"Come on, Rick," she said with an impish grin. "You know I can't make promises like that."

Rick smiled slightly. "Yeah, I know. But you can't blame me for trying."

Shane approached them then, cutting off any more conversation that would have been had between Rick and Caterina. "We ready?" he asked.

"I guess so." He turned to Caterina. "You wanna come with us?" he asked.

"No, I think I'll keep close to the farm, make sure everyone else is safe," Caterina said.

"All right."

Shane stepped past Rick and Caterina, apparently annoyed with their chatting, and grabbed Randall by the arm. "Get up," he grunted as he forced Randall onto his feet. He knelt down and unshackled the boy's ankles before dragging him forcefully out of the shed.

Rick sighed at his rough handling before he followed him out.

"Rick?" Caterina called, causing Rick to pause and look back at her. "Be careful."

"I'll be fine," he assured her with a slight smile. "Look out for Lori and Carl."

Caterina nodded. "Of course."

Rick gave her one last reassuring look before he left after Shane. Caterina watched them go for a moment before she turned into the shed. She grabbed the abandoned plate from the floor and brought it up to the house. Lori was in the kitchen when she walked in, cleaning up dishes from the meal that she had prepared for Beth.

Caterina approached the sink and slid the plate in with the others.

"Thanks," Lori said.

"How's Beth?" Caterina asked.

"She still hasn't improved," she sighed before looking up at Caterina. "Can you go check in on her?"

She nodded. "Sure."

She walked over Beth's room, which was the same room that Carl had been confined to when he was shot. Apparently, Beth had taken up residence in Maggie's room while Carl had been recovering.

Caterina opened the door and peeked into the room. Her eyes fell instantly on the tray of food on the nightstand. It didn't look like it had been touched.

"Still can't eat?" she asked.

When she didn't get a response, Caterina looked up and was surprised to see Beth sitting up in bed, crying silently. She glanced back towards the kitchen, thinking for a moment that she should go get Lori. Caterina had never been too good at comforting crying women. She always ended up just patting them on the back while they sobbed into her shoulder, like she had done with Lori and Carol. She was even worse with crying teenage girls.

Caterina sighed and walked into the room. She didn't bother closing the door, figuring that the others would leave them be for now. Instead, she just sat down on the edge of Beth's bed so that she was facing the wall.

"I know how hard this is," she started. "When all of this started, I searched as far as I could for my family. I must've covered three states, looking for anywhere they might be."

"It's just so pointless," Beth muttered.

Caterina scoffed and looked down at her hands. "Pointless? You still have Maggie, your father, Patricia, Jimmy… You still have people to stay strong for. If you ask me, you're pretty lucky. I would give anything to know that my family is okay, even just one of them."

She felt Beth look up at the back of her head, but she didn't look away from her lap.

"Thank you," Beth said finally.

Caterina looked around her shoulder at the young girl and smiled slightly. She stood up. "I'll go to tell Lori that you're feeling better," she offered. She grabbed the untouched tray and took it out with her. She walked back into the kitchen where Lori was waiting, now standing at the island, which was still littered with everything that Lori had used to make Beth's lunch. Caterina went around to the counter next to the sink and set it down.

"She still won't eat?" Lori asked.

"I guess not."

She picked up fork and napkin and went to grab the knife, but she paused when she couldn't find it. She looked around the plate, expecting it to be tucked under the edge or something. But it wasn't there. She dropped the fork onto the tray and braced herself on the edges of the counter as she lowered her head with a heavy sigh.

"Cat?" Lori asked worriedly.

"You gave Beth a knife, didn't you?" Caterina asked.

"Yes…"

Caterina pushed away from the counter and stormed back to Beth's room. Lori followed right behind her, asking what was wrong, but Caterina didn't say a word.

She threw open the door to find Beth curled under her covers. "Give it to me," she ordered.

Beth didn't even acknowledge her.

"So that's it? After everything I said, you're going to off yourself just like that?"

Lori looked at Caterina in horror, but she didn't look away from Beth's prone form.

"I don't care how depressed you are. I don't care how much you're hurting. You are _not_ going to put your father or Maggie or anyone else through this. They've already lost enough people. Are you really so selfish that you'll put them through that pain again?"

For a moment, no one said anything. Lori just looked between Caterina and Beth, surprised and horrified by what was going on. Finally, Beth pulled back her cover just enough to pull her arm free, the steak knife that Lori had given her clutched loosely in her hand. She passed it over her shoulder, and Caterina snatched it from her roughly before she stormed back out of the room.

Lori hesitated before following her.

"Cat? What're you doing?"

Caterina passed through the kitchen, pausing only to throw the knife into the kitchen sink. She still didn't answer Lori. She just walked out of the house with Lori at her heels. She stormed down to the RV, where Andrea was keeping an eye out.

"Andrea!" she called. "Where's Maggie and Hershel?"

"I don't know about Hershel, but I saw Maggie and Glenn maybe twenty minutes," Andrea said.

Caterina nodded in thanks and turned back to Lori. "Go back to the house. I'll go find Maggie."

Lori nodded in understanding and ran back up to the house.

Caterina turned back to Andrea. "Which way did they go?"

When Andrea pointed out the direction, Caterina turned and ran off to find Maggie. She found her and Glenn up in the loft in the barn, apparently in the middle of a make-out session. In a normal circumstance, she would've jumped at the chance to tease them about having found them like that. But things were much too serious for that.

"Jesus!" Glenn gasped as he jumped away from Maggie. "What're you doing?"

Caterina ignored him, focusing instead on Maggie. "You need to come back down to the house."

"Why? What's wrong?" Maggie asked worriedly.

"I think Beth's suicidal," she answered bluntly. Maggie's eyes widened in horror. "She took a steak knife that Lori had given her and had it in her bed with her. I took it away, but I'm sure this won't be the last time that she tries it. You need to talk to her."

Maggie nodded in understanding, and she followed Caterina out of the loft, leaving Glenn to enjoy his own company. Caterina offered to go find Hershel, but Maggie declined, saying that she didn't want him to know about this just yet. So, instead, they went back up to the house. Maggie went straight to Beth's room while Caterina joined Lori and Andrea in the kitchen. Andrea had apparently joined her there after Caterina went off looking for Maggie.

No one said anything as they settled in, listening to Beth and Maggie yelling at each other. Caterina stood against the counter next to where Lori was sitting, her arms crossed and her eyes on the floor. She wasn't listening to what the two sisters were saying exactly; she was just listening to the sounds of their voices.

"Where's Hershel?" Andrea asked.

"Maggie doesn't want him to find out yet," Caterina muttered.

"It's a family affair," Lori said. "We'll let them work it out."

"That's working it out?" Andre scoffed.

"When Beth stops fighting, that's when it's time to worry"" Lori jumped down from the counter to start grabbing the food on the island and putting them away.

"This could've been handled better."

Caterina rolled her eyes and pushed away from the counter as she started for the door.

"Where're you going?" Lori asked.

"I'm not about to stand here and listen to Andrea criticize my decision to save Beth's life."

"You didn't save her life," Andrea argued. "You took away her choice."

Caterina stopped and turned to glare at Andrea, who shifted uncomfortably under the force of it. "You are _not_ going to tell me that I should've let a sixteen-year-old kill herself just because she's going through a state of depression."

"Just because she's sixteen doesn't mean she can't make her own decision on whether she wants to live or not."

She took a threatening step forward, her glare intensified. Andrea instantly took a step back, apparently afraid that Caterina was about to hit her. "I'm going to go before I lose my temper. While I'm gone, you aren't to go anywhere near Beth's room, do you understand me? If I find out that you went in there to talk to her, you _will_ regret it."

With that, Caterina turned and stormed out of the house.

She ended up walking up to where Daryl had set up his camp. It was next to the remains of what looked to be a chimney. He was sitting next to his firepit, skinning some squirrels. He had decided to get his own food instead of taking Hershel's, so he went out hunting almost every day. Caterina often went out with him, as an excuse to do something other than the chores that the women gave her.

"Hey," she greeted him.

Daryl glanced up before turning back to his work. "Shouldn't you be out keepin' watch?"

"Dale's got it covered. Besides, I needed some more civilized company."

He scoffed. "If civilized is what you're lookin' for, you came to the wrong person."

Caterina smiled. "Yeah, well, anything's better than being around Andrea right now."

Daryl looked up properly this time and stared at her thoughtfully. After a moment, he put his game aside and motioned for her to take a seat. She nodded in thanks and sat down next to him on the log, leaning forward so that her torso was being propped up by her arms.

"You really got a hard on for that girl, huh?" Daryl muttered.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't ask me to explain it. It would take all day."

He huffed amusedly. "What'd she do now?"

"She tried to tell me that _I_ was in the wrong because I wouldn't let Beth kill herself. The girl is sixteen-years-old. She's depressed. Her mother's just died, again. And Andrea seems to think that, just because she just recently went through a period of depression herself, she knows the best way to deal with it."

"And you think differently," Daryl stated more than asked.

"Not everyone deals with depression the same. Some get over it and some don't. Andrea got over hers because Dale kept her from killing herself like she wanted to."

"Do you agree with what Dale did?"

"Yes and no. I think people should be free to make their own choices about their own lives. If you don't think you can handle the pain anymore, by all means, do what you've gotta do. But it's different with teenagers. They don't have the mentality to be trusted to make a decision like that. They don't think of what the consequences will be. All they care about is instant gratification. Whenever they decide to do something, they do it just because it seems like a good idea at the time. They don't think of the consequences it may have."

Daryl scoffed. "What, are you a psychiatrist too?"

"No," she laughed. "But my brother was studying to become one."

He looked at her. "You got a brother?"

She nodded. "Gabriele. He has about seven years on me, and he never lets me forget it."

"Where is he now?"

Caterina shrugged. "I don't know. I tried looking for him when shit first started to hit the fan, but I never found him, or his fiancée. The same with my parents. I went up to Florida first to look for them, but all I found was a note saying that they were going up to Gabriele's house in Alabama. But they weren't there either. Their cars were there, though, so I figured that they had left on foot for some reason. So I walked all the way down here looking for them. I ended up joining a group a few miles out of Atlanta, but we got overrun and I was the only one who made it out alive. It was a few days after that when Rick found me. And I guess I got kind of distracted after that."

Daryl didn't say anything for a moment. He just stared at her with almost impassively. Finally, he turned his gaze on the firepit. "I'm sure your family's fine."

She smiled slightly. "Just like I'm sure your brother's fine too."

His jaw tensed at the mention of his brother. He opened his mouth to say something more, but he was cut off by someone calling out towards them.

"Cat?"

Daryl and Caterina looked towards the voice. Lori was approaching them hurriedly. Caterina stood to meet her.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Beth," Lori panted. "She slit her wrist."

Her eyes widened. "What? You left her alone?"

"Apparently, Andrea went to see her and convinced Maggie to leave her alone with her. She was gone by the time she came back."

Anger flared up in Caterina's stomach. She brushed past Lori and took off towards the house. Lori and Daryl exchanged looks before hurrying after her. Neither of them knew what she was about to do, but they knew it couldn't be good.

When they reached the house, Andrea was talking to Maggie on the porch.

"She wants to live," Andrea said in relief. "She made her decision."

"She tried to kill herself," Maggie snapped.

"No, she didn't'."

"My father's stitchin' her wrist right now."

"She'll live."

Caterina stormed up to them. Andrea turned and, before she could even open her mouth to defend herself, Caterina decked her in the jaw. Andrea's head snapped to the side and she stumbled to the side a bit under the force of it. She put her hand to her already bruising jaw and looked at Caterina with wide eyes. It almost looked like she was actually shocked that Caterina had just punched her.

Caterina reared back again, but Daryl grabbed her arm before she could start swinging. She didn't bother to struggle against him, satisfied that she'd at least gotten one good hit in.

"I told you to stay away from her," she almost snarled.

Andrea opened her mouth, but she shut up at Caterina's glare.

"I told you once before, if you stepped out of line again, I'd make sure you were stuck doing menial chores for the rest of your days here. From here on out, you won't be allowed to just lounge around and keep watch like you've been doing. You're going to help Lori and the others with whatever chores they give you. The only time you're to be permitted to pick up a gun is with my say so."

She frowned. "You can't tell me what to do."

Caterina jerked her arm out of Daryl's grasp and took a step forward, but Daryl grabbed her by the shoulder to hold her back. "No, you're right. I can't. But you're going to regret the consequences if you refuse."

"Are you threatening me?" Andrea challenged, though her voice was a little shaky.

"No, I'm promising you," Caterina replied darkly. "You've been an annoyance ever since you went on that suicide kick of yours. Now, it looks like you're a threat to any like minded people. So I will do whatever it takes to make sure you don't infect anyone else with your poisonous mind. Do I make myself clear?"

Andrea swallowed fearfully but didn't say anything. Caterina took that as her a sign of consent.

She glared at Andrea for a moment longer, enjoying the way that she was squirming, before she pulled out of Daryl's grasp again and turned to start to leave.

Lori stepped out in front of her before she could pass and grabbed her shoulder. "Cat—" she started, but Caterina cut her off by jerking out of Lori's grasp a little too harshly, fed up with people grabbing her, and continued past her.

Daryl looked between the women before following after Caterina.


	25. Chapter 24

There had been times when Caterina had been forced to be present for "enhanced" interrogations. They were some of her more unpleasant memories, but they had at least hardened her to the art. While she had never performed them herself, she was able to stand through one without changing her expression. After this whole apocalypse thing, she never would've thought that she would be forced to see another one again. But there she was, watching stoically from the back of Hershel's shed with her arms crossed while Daryl beat on Randall.

She had thought that the issue with Randall would be finished when Rick and Shane took him out yesterday. But they had returned with him that same night, saying that they couldn't just let him go like they had been planning. Apparently, Randall had grown up in this area. He knew Maggie and her family, probably knew where their farm was. Rick was worried that, if they let him go, he would find his group and bring them to the farm.

That was why Caterina and Daryl had been instructed to interrogate him. Rick wanted to know more about the people that Randall had been holed up with, so he could determine just how worried they should be about them, and he wanted the answers "by any means necessary."

Daryl punched Randall in the cheek, sending him crumbling to the floor. He punched him two more times while he was down, the boy sobbing the whole time.

"I told you—" Randall started.

"You told me shit!" Daryl interrupted him. He grabbed Randall by the shirt and propped him up against the wall roughly.

"Daryl," Caterina called. He looked back at her, and she motioned for him to back off. Daryl nodded and took a few steps back from the boy. Caterina lowered her arms and approached the boy from her place against the back wall. "Just tell us about these guys you were with."

"I barely knew 'em," Randall puffed. "I met 'em on the road."

"How many are there?"

Randall just shook his head, not wanting to say. Caterina exchanged looks with Daryl. She went to grab her buck knife, but Daryl reached out and slapped her on the arm, shaking his head. He had insisted on doing the brutal part himself. Caterina felt bad leaving the dirty work to him, but she was also grateful. She wasn't sure how she would handle the guilt later on if she had been left to perform this interrogation on her own.

Daryl grabbed his own knife from its holster at his hip and stalked towards the boy threateningly.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no. C'mon, man," Randall begged.

Daryl knelt down quickly and thrust his knife into the floorboard next to Randall's leg, just barely missing him. "How many?" he repeated forcefully.

"Uh, thirty! Thirty! Thirty guys!"

"Where?" Caterina asked.

"Uh…"

Daryl ripped off the bandage on Randall's calf, causing the boy to squeal fearfully.

"I don't know! I swear! We were never anyplace more than a night."

Daryl pressed his knife into the boy's barely healed calf. An ugly scab had formed over it, to the point that his leg almost looked deformed. Caterina was sure that it would probably look like that from the rest of his life. But she supposed he should feel lucky. Having scars that would never heal was better than losing one of your limbs.

Daryl dug the tip of his knife under the scab. "Scoutin'? Plannin' on stayin' local?" he grilled him.

"I-I don't know! They left me behind!"

"Did you ever pick off a scab?" Daryl asked.

"C'mon, man! I'm tryin' to cooperate!"

"Start real slow at first," he continued as if Randall hadn't spoken. "Sooner or later, you've just gotta rip it off."

"Okay! Okay! Th-th-th-they have weapons—heavy stuff, automatics. B-B-But I didn't do anything!"

"Your boys shot at my people, tried to take this farm. You just went along for the ride? You tryin' to tell me you're innocent?"

"Yes!" Randall shrieked. "These people took me in. Not just guys—a whole group of 'em"

Now that he was talking, Caterina reached out and patted Daryl on the arm. He glanced back at her before he pulled his knife up away from the boy's leg and stood up, returning his knife to its holster as he moved to stand next to Caterina.

"Men and women, uh, kids too—just like you people. Thought I'd have a better chance with 'em, you know? But…we go out, scavenge—just the men. One night, we…we found this little campsite. A man and his two daughters—teenagers, you know? Really young. Real cute."

"Jesus," Caterina muttered. She turned away and ran her finger through her hair. She already knew where Randall was going with this, and she was regretting agreeing to do this even more now.

Daryl froze before he could reach Caterina's side and slowly turned to stare at the boy, a blank look on his face. But it was obvious that he knew what Randall was getting at as well, and he was disgusted and angered by it.

Randall realized that they knew what he was saying, but he kept going, apparently feeling the need to get it all out, get it off his chest.

"Their daddy had to watch while these guys, they… And they didn't even kill him afterwards. They just—they just made him watch. As his daughters… They just-just-just left him there. No, b-b-but I didn't touch those girls. No, I swear, I didn't to—"

Before he could finish, Daryl kicked him hard in his injured calf. The boy yelped in pain.

"Please, you gotta believe me, man!" he sobbed. "I'm not like that. I ain't like that. Please. Please, you gotta believe me."

Daryl didn't seem interested in what he had to say anymore. He just kicked him again in the leg, this time causing the boy to cry out. Daryl got down to Randall's level and started beating him even more ferociously than he had been. Caterina watched him for a moment, surprised at how violently he was acting. She knew that he had anger issues—that much was had become apparent on the first day that she met him. But he seemed to have a pretty good hold on it most of the time. It was only when someone did or said something that Daryl didn't like that he let his self-control slip.

"Daryl," Caterina called, but Daryl ignored her. "Daryl," she said a bit louder.

When he still didn't stop punching the kid repeatedly in the face, Caterina reached out and grabbed Daryl's arm before he could hit Randall again. He glared back at her for stopping him, and she just shook her head, silently telling him that he had done enough. Daryl stared at her for a moment, and Caterina could practically see the level of his anger lowering in his eyes. Finally, when he seemed to calm down completely, Caterina released his hand. He stood up and backed away from Randall. Caterina grabbed Daryl's jacket and crossbow from the chair and handed them to him for him to put on. He nodded in thanks.

She waited by the door while Daryl got dressed. Once he was ready, she led the way out of the shed. She stopped to chain and lock the shed door before the two of them started up to the camp where the others were awaiting their report.

"It wasn't necessary to beat him like that at the end," Caterina pointed out.

"You heard him," Daryl barked. Apparently, he hadn't calmed down as much as Caterina had thought. "What they did to those girls…"

"He said he didn't participate."

He scoffed. "And you're just gonna take his word?"

"His word is all we have, Daryl."

"Yeah, well, it ain't enough. Those bastards…" he growled. "Just think of what they would've done if you hadn't been with Rick and them when you met 'em."

Caterina stopped. "Is that why you got so upset?"

Daryl stopped to look back at her, but he didn't say anything.

She sighed. "Daryl, you know I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, I know," he muttered. "But even you ain't invincible. If those men were packin' like he said, it wouldn't of mattered. They would've taken you down if you'd been by yourself. And if they didn't kill ya straight off…" He trailed off, his jaw tensing angrily at the thought of what they might've done.

Caterina stared at him for a moment before approaching him. Daryl watched her apprehensively, as if he were expecting her to hit him (honestly, he wouldn't put it past her), but she just leaned forward and kissed him lightly. Daryl seemed to relax slightly at the feel of her lips pressed against his.

She pulled away to smile at him. "Thank you for worrying about me."

Daryl nodded, looking a bit abashed.

Caterina grinned and walked past him, continuing towards camp. She could feel Daryl's gaze on her back for a moment before he started following her.

Everyone looked up as the two approached camp.

"Boy there's got a gang," Daryl said, diving straight in to what they had learned. "Thirty men. They have heavy artillery, and they ain't lookin' to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna—they're gonna wish they were."

"What did you do?" Carol asked.

"Had a little chat."

Rick ran his hand over his face agitatedly. "No one goes near this guy."

Lori stood up and approached her husband. "Rick, what are you gonna do?" she asked lowly.

He sighed. "We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."

"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked, appalled.

"It's settled. I'll do it today."

Rick turned and started to walk away, and Dale took off after him. Caterina exchanged looks with Daryl before she hurried after the two men. She could sense an argument coming on, and she had a feeling that she would want to be a part of it—either to give her two cents, or to act as a mediator.

"You can't do this," Dale said. "You don't wanna do this. I know you don't."

"I thought about it all night. Knowing what we know now, I don't see a way around it," Rick said.

"But you can't just decide on your own to take someone's life."

"The group seemed supportive."

"What, because they didn't speak up? You didn't let them."

Rick finally stopped and put his hands on his hips, sighing. Dale took this as a sign to keep going and say what he wanted to say.

"Rick, there's gotta be a process."

"And what would that be?" Rick asked. "We can't call witnesses, go before a judge."

"So he's automatically guilty by association and sentenced to death? He's just a kid!"

"Dale's right," Caterina jumped in. "When he told us about what his group did, he seemed genuinely ashamed. I don't think he participated in any of the facts that his group did."

Rick looked at her, thinking on what she had said, but he still seemed conflicted.

"Give me some time to talk to everyone," Dale pleaded, "try to figure out another way—"

"No!" Rick refused vehemently. "We can't drag this out. People are scared."

"Which is why they need time to discuss this."

He shook his head. "No. No, no, they need to be safe. I owe 'em that."

He started to walk away again, but Dale stopped him by calling, "You think about your son!" Rick stopped to look back at him, and Dale continued. "The message that you're giving him—shoot first, think later. I'm asking for one day to talk to everybody. You can give me that. Think about Carl."

"I am," Rick said. But he paused, thinking what Dale had said over. He looked at Caterina, silently asking for her opinion.

"Look, in the past, I've been ordered to shoot first and ask questions later," Caterina said. "I've had to kill people that I think were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've even had to kill people since this whole apocalypse thing started. I know how hard it is. So I think Dale's right. We need to talk it over with everyone."

Rick sighed heavily. "We reconvene at sunset," he relented. "Then what happens happens."

Dale and Caterina nodded in understanding, and Rick walked off.

"I'll take the others if you talk to Daryl," Dale offered as he turned to Caterina.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of him," she teased.

He chuckled. "Nah, I'm not afraid of him. But, if anyone's gonna convince Daryl of anything, it would be you."

She put her hand to her chin thoughtfully. "You might be right about that," she muttered jokingly.

"I have no doubt that I am."

She chuckled. "I'll talk to him. Good luck with the others."

Dale nodded with a smile and started walking back up to camp. Caterina turned and looked out at where Daryl was set up at the back of Hershel's land. She could just see him bustling around his little campsite, so she started the trek up to him.

"Hey," she greeted as she neared Daryl's camp.

Daryl glanced up at her from getting his hunting gear together. "You and Dale talk to Rick?" he asked.

"Yeah. He's agreed to wait until sundown to decide once and for all what we're going to do about Randall. We're going to meet again and take a vote."

Daryl straightened and stared at her for a moment contemplatively before walking over to the short brick wall and grabbing his jacket. "You don't think we should kill him," he stated instead of asked.

"I know more than anyone here what it takes to survive in a world like this. I've had to kill plenty of men since this whole thing started. Hell, I was the one who killed Dave and Tony, and I don't feel even an ounce of guilt over it. One of the reasons why is, no matter how many people that I've killed, I'm not like them. I kill for survival, not for pleasure and not out of fear or paranoia."

"And you think them wantin' to kill this kid is out of fear or paranoia."

"Yes."

Daryl scoffed. "Good luck tellin' Rick or Shane that."

"Rick just wants to protect the group. He's only doing what he thinks will keep us safe. Shane was the one who somehow convinced him that killing Randall is the best way to do it. You know what Shane did to Otis."

"Course I do. He told me some bull crap story—how Otis covered him, saved his ass. He showed up with the dead guy's gun. I ain't stupid. And neither is Rick."

"You're right. Rick knows what went down with Otis. He knows Shane's dangerous."

"And you still think Shane talked Rick into wantin' to kill Randall?"

"Yes. No matter how dangerous he is, Shane is like a fox—cunning and manipulative. He knows how to use logic and emotions in his favor. Look at how he talked everyone into taking care of the walkers in the barn."

Daryl paused and frowned at her. "We couldn't just leave 'em there."

"No, but it wasn't right to go in guns blazing knowing it was Hershel's family in there."

Daryl looked down, knowing that Caterina was right. He had felt guilty about taking in part in that slaughter like he had, but mostly because Caterina had the annoying ability to make him feel guilty about even the smallest of things. He didn't regret getting rid of the danger that the walkers in the barn had presented, but he did regret how they went about it.

"So, when we all gather later today, who are you going to side with? Me or Shane?"

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Is that why you're here? You tryin' to convince me to side with you and Dale?"

"If you think it's wrong, you should say so," Caterina said, neither denying it nor agreeing with it.

"To be honest, I don't care either way. Whether he lives or dies, I ain't gonna lose any sleep over it. Besides, it ain't like nobody but you cares about my opinion."

"Carol does," she argued. "Dale does. You even have Rick's ear."

Daryl scoffed at that. "Rick just looks to you and Shane."

"He would look to you too if you let him."

Daryl just shook his head and continued getting ready to go out hunting.

Caterina sighed, realizing that she wasn't going to get anywhere by talking any more about it. "Just think about it, all right?" she asked.

"Fine. But I ain't promisin' nothin'."

"I know."

Daryl slung his crossbow over his shoulder and took a step towards the trees, but he stopped as Caterina started moving towards him. She stepped up and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, just to give him it a little incentive to think more about what she had said and possibly decide to agree with her. When she pulled away, Daryl gave her a look that clearly said that he knew what she was trying to do. Caterina just grinned up at him, not at all ashamed.

He rolled his eyes and disappeared through the tree line.

As the sun started to set, everyone gathered back up at the farmhouse to make their final decision about Randall. Dale had spoken to everyone else like he had said, including Shane, but it didn't seem like he had managed to convince anyone to side with him. Caterina could tell from the way that his shoulders were slumped as he trudged up the porch steps to join everyone on the porch.

"Let's gather up," Rick said

"Come on, Carl. I want you to stay with Jimmy," Lori said as Carl approached the house. Caterina had noticed that he had been missing from the camp for a while, but she had just assumed that he'd gone exploring. The kid was probably bored out of his mind. And she knew that he was smart enough not to venture too far.

"But I wanna listen," Carl whined.

"Not this time. C'mon."

Caterina went to stand by a cabinet next to the front door. Daryl came and stood behind her, settling in close enough that she could feel the heat coming off of him, warming up her back.

Everyone else spread out in the living room. Rick stayed by his wife near the door, in front of Caterina and Daryl. He stood with his hands on his hips a moment before looking back in to the other half of the living room. Caterina looked back and saw Carl standing there. He looked around at them all before he walked off, his shoulders sagging.

As soon as he was out of range, they dove straight into the issue at hand.

"So how do we do this?" Glenn started off. "Just take a vote?"

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.

"How about majority rule?" Lori proposed.

"Let's just see where everybody stands. Then we can talk through the options," Rick said.

"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward," Shane said.

"Killing him, right?" Dale asked. "I mean, why even bother take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know," Rick argued.

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group—maybe just me, Caterina, and Glenn."

Glenn looked up at Dale hesitantly. "Look, I-I think you're pretty much right about everything all of the time, but this—a"

Dale gaped at him in disbelief. "They've got you scared!"

"He's not one of us."

"So we just kill him because he's not one of us?" Caterina asked, turning everyone's attention on her. "If that's your reasoning, you people are worse off than I thought."

Daryl reached out and placed his hand on her waist as subtly as he could, apparently in an attempt to calm her down, but she ignored it.

"When Rick and I rode back to that oasis with you, we weren't one of you either. When we found out that Lori and Carl were with you, it made Rick a part of your group automatically. But me? I didn't know any of you from Adam. I was just somebody that Rick found reading on a car on the side of the road."

"But you proved you were one of us when you helped save us in Atlanta," Andrea pointed out.

"That's because the opportunity presented itself. Randall has done nothing to prove that he is a danger to this group besides having been in a group with those assholes Dave and Tony. I was the one who killed them. I understand you need to kill in order to survive, dead or not. But killing just because you're scared doesn't justify it."

No one said anything; they just looked down. They knew that Caterina was right, and she knew that they knew. But that didn't mean that they were ready to outwardly admit it.

Dale nodded to Caterina thankfully. "Well said."

Caterina nodded back.

He turned to the group, looking at each of them individually, as if trying to decide who to start in on first. Finally, he motioned to Maggie and Hershel. "How about you?" he asked. "Do you agree that we should kill Randall?"

"Couldn't we continue keepin' him prisoner?" Maggie asked.

"It may be a lean winter," Hershel said.

"We could ration better," Lori suggested.

"Well, he could be an asset," Dale said. "Like Caterina said, give him a chance to prove himself."

"Put him to work?" Glenn asked.

"We're not lettin' him walk around," Rick rebuffed him.

"We could put an escort on him," Maggie recommended.

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane scoffed.

"I will," Caterina said challengingly.

"I don't think any of us should be walkin' around with this guy," Rick said.

"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up," Lori agreed with her husband.

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor," Andrea said.

"Look, say we let him join us, right?" Shane presented. "Maybe he's helpful. Maybe he's nice." He scoffed at the last bit, earning him a glare from Caterina. "We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his thirty men."

Caterina felt Daryl tense behind her. She reached down and placed her hand over his on her waist in an attempt to soothe him.

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt?" Dale said in disbelief. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."

"Oh my God…" Shane muttered cynically.

"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel asked.

"You barely came back this time," Lori said before Rick could even begin to consider it. "There are walkers out there. You could break down. You could get lost."

"You could get ambushed," Daryl added.

"They're right. We should _not_ put our own people at risk," Glenn agreed.

"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia wondered. "Would he suffer?"

"We could hang him, right?" Shane offered. "Just snap his neck."

"I thought about that," Rick said. "Shootin' may be more humane."

"And what about the body?" T-Dog asked. "Do we bury him?"

"Hold on! Hold on!" Dale cried. "You're talking about this like it's already decided."

"You've been talkin' all day, goin' 'round in circles," Daryl pointed out. "You wanna just go 'round in circles again?"

"This is a young man's life, and it's worth more than a five-minute conversation!" He looked around at everyone. "Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him?" He motioned to Rick. "You saved him, and now look at us. He's been tortured; he's gonna be executed. How are we any better than the people that we're so afraid of?"

Again, everyone was silent.

"We all know what needs to be done," Shane said after a moment.

"No, Dale's right," Rick argued. "We can't leave any stone unturned her. We have a responsibility—"

"So what's the other solution?" Andrea interrupted.

"Let Rick finish," Lori tried to say, but Andrea just spoke over her.

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could—"

"So let's work on it!" Dale encouraged them.

"We are," Rick reminded him.

"Stop it!" Carol spoke up for the first time in weeks, and everyone turned to her in surprise. "I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this." She looked between Rick and Shane. "Please decide—either of you, both of you—but leave me out."

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself—there's no difference," Dale said.

"Dale," Caterina said. Dale looked over at her, and she shook her head. He'd taken it a bit too far. People weren't obligated to speak their minds in situations like this. Oftentimes, people found it easier to just keep silent and let the chips fall where they may. Not everyone was as outspoken as she and Dale were, and that was no reason to accuse them of being bad people.

"Anybody that wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance," Rick said.

Nobody stepped forward, instead either looking down or avoiding looking anyone in the eye. Dale looked around, silently beseeching them to support him. Caterina didn't step forward, instead deciding to lean back into Daryl. She had already spoken her mind, and the others had shot her down just like they had Dale. If they hadn't listened to her before, they wouldn't do it now, so there was no point.

"You once believed that killing the living was wrong," Dale reminded Rick.

"Well, that was before the livin' tried to kill us."

"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were—the world that we know is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's…harsh. It's survival of the fittest," he stuttered. "And that's a world that I don't wanna live in. And I don't believe that _any_ of you do. I can't."

Still, no one said anything.

"Please," he begged. "Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me and Caterina?"

Everyone remained silent. Caterina could sense that a few people were starting to think that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, killing Randall, but it didn't seem that anyone really wanted to speak up.

"He's right," Andrea said after a moment. "We should try to find another way."

"Anybody else?" Rick asked.

"We should give him a chance," Daryl decided.

Caterina looked up over her shoulder at him in surprise. He glanced down at her but seemed hesitant to meet her gaze. She smiled slightly. So her ploy earlier had worked after all, even after he had seen through it. She turned back to the group, feeling particularly proud of herself.

"That it?" Rick asked.

No one spoke up.

"Are y'all gonna watch too?" Dale asked tearfully before waving his hand. "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being." He gave a shaky sigh. "I won't be a party to it."

With that, he walked out the side door.

Later that night, Caterina joined Daryl, Shane, and Rick in escorting Randall out of the shed. While she didn't agree with their decision to kill the boy, she stood by Rick in his decision now that it had been made. She didn't hold it against him, or anyone else (well, except maybe Shane). It took a certain kind of bravery to go against your fears and paranoia and do what you thought was right. There weren't too many people in the world who were able to do that. The only reason Caterina was able to was because of all of the things that she'd experienced so far. She hadn't been alive for long—only thirty-five years—but she had seen and done a lot thanks to the neighborhood that she'd lived in and her time serving in the military. She understood the world probably better than most people did, and that gave her the sense and the ability to decide what was right and stick to her beliefs, regardless of what others said.

Randall started to realize what they were doing when he noticed that they were taking him to the privacy of the barn.

"Hold on," he begged. "Hold on. Hold on!"

No one listened.

Rick opened the door, and they went inside.

"Wait… Wait! Wait!"

"Put him there," Rick instructed, motioning to the center of the barn.

Daryl placed Randall where he had instructed before letting Shane take hold of the boy. He took a blindfold from his back pocket and grabbed Randall to hold him in place so that he could tie it around his face.

"It's all gonna be over soon," Shane assured him.

"What? What's gonna be over soon?" Randall squeaked.

"Relax."

"Hey! Hey, no, no, no, no, no."

Shane shushed him, trying to get him to stop crying. But Randall continued to sob as he was left to stand in front of Rick on his own. Daryl walked over to where Caterina was standing and stood by her, knowing that she wanted to be there for the execution but that she was unsettled by it. He took her hand in his surreptitiously in the hopes of easing her discomfort, even if it was just a little. She squeezed his hand gratefully.

"Would you like to stand or kneel?" Rick asked.

"Oh no, please…" the boy begged fearfully.

"Just get on your knees, Randall," Caterina instructed softly.

Randall sobbed, but he did as she said, kneeling down in front of Rick. He continued to sob while Rick and Shane exchanged looks, the latter nodding his assent. Daryl looked down at Caterina from the corner of his eye, but she refused to look away from Randall.

"Do you have any final words?" Rick asked.

"No. Please. Please, don't. Don't," Randall cried.

Rick just stared at him, trying to appear uncaring. But Caterina could see the conflict in his eyes. He didn't want to do this, but he thought that it was the best way to protect his people, his family. So Rick was keeping himself hardened to it to the best of his abilities.

He raised his Python and aimed it at Randall's forehead, pulling back the hammer. Randall's sobbing intensified as he heard the click. Rick hesitated, watching Randall sobbing so hard.

"Do it, dad," an unexpected voice spoke up from the entrance to the barn.

Caterina spun around to find Carl standing in the doorway of the barn, watching them all expectantly.

"Do it," he encouraged.

Rick looked even more reluctant to kill Randall now.

He looked at Shane pleadingly, and he walked over to where Carl was and grabbed him by the arm. "Are you kiddin' me? What'd I say to you?" Shane snapped.

Rick looked at Caterina now, as if to ask her what he should be doing. But she had already given him her answer, and he knew it.

He looked back down at Randall and lowered his gun. "Take him away," he muttered.

Randall started panting, trying to calm himself down from the waves of fear that had been crashing over him just several moments before. Caterina nodded and walked over to Randall. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him onto his feet gently. She led him out of the barn with Daryl behind her. Shane stalked out ahead of them, obviously upset that Rick had decided not to go through with killing Randall after all.

Caterina and Daryl had only just shackled Randall back to the shed wall when they heard the screaming. They exchanged troubled looks before bolting out the door, pausing only to grab the lantern.

They seemed to be the first to be responding to the screams.

As they neared the source, Caterina realized that the screams belonged to Dale and, when they passed through the gates leading out to the field where he was, the frightened screams quickly turned to shrieks of pain.

Caterina was quick to pick up her pace as they neared Dale, and she tackled the walker on top of him. Once she had it on the ground, she snatched up one of her knives and stabbed it into the walker's head so hard that it became buried up to the hilt. She didn't bother pulling it out before she rolled off of the walker and crawled over to kneel at Dale's side with Daryl.

Her throat constricted and her stomach churned when she saw what the walker had done to Dale. It had literally torn open his abdomen, leaving his organs exposed to the air. Caterina swallowed and reached out to take Dale's hand before she looked up at her Daryl in horror.

Daryl jumped onto his feet and started jumping up and down, waving his hands over his head. "Help!" he shouted to the others as they ran out into the field. "Over here!"

"Where?" Andrea shouted back.

"Help! Run!" He knelt back down at Dale's side. "Hang in there, buddy."

"Who is it?" Andrea asked.

Rick and Shane were the first to join them, quickly followed by Andrea and the others.

"Oh my God…" Rick muttered.

"Oh God…"

Rick dropped down next to Dale's head and cupped the man's face, turning his head so that he was staring up at him. "All right, just listen to my voice. Listen to me, all right? Just listen to me. Okay, hold on now." He looked up at the others. "Get Hershel! He needs blood. We gotta operate now."

"Hang on, Dale," Andrea said. "Hang on."

Dale just looked around at them all helplessly. He was panting and moaning, understandably unable to make any other sounds.

Caterina could feel the tears gathering in her eyes, and she didn't bother holding them back this time. Instead, she let them fall freely. A sob escaped her lips before she could swallow it back, and she quickly covered her mouth. She didn't want Dale to have to listen to her crying in his last moments. Daryl seemed to sense this, as he grabbed Caterina by the shoulders and gently pulled her away from Dale. He helped her onto her feet and pulled her into his chest. Unable to look at the condition that Dale was in any longer, Caterina turned and pressed her face into Daryl's neck, sobbing. Daryl wrapped his arms around her tightly, trying to comfort her without saying anything.

"Listen to me, okay?" Caterina heard Rick continue. "Listen to my voice. All right? Please. Hershel!" he shouted again. "We need Hershel!"

"Look at me," Andrea said.

"Dale, we're gonna help. We're here. Just hold on. Please, hold on."

"What happened?" Hershel's voice finally joined them.

"What can we do?"

"Dale, it's gonna be okay," Glenn tried to assure him.

"He won't make the trip," Hershel said.

"You have to do the operation here," Rick said. "Glenn, get back to the house."

"Rick," Hershel said before they all fell silent.

"No!" Rick shouted desperately after a moment.

"Oh God!" Andrea sobbed.

Caterina could still hear Dale moaning and gurgling on the ground. It seemed like everyone had just frozen, unable to do anything now that they knew Dale couldn't be saved.

She gripped the sides of Daryl's jacket while she tried to pull herself together. They couldn't just leave him like this. If they couldn't save him, then the least they could do was put him out of his misery.

Finally, she pulled away from Daryl. "We can't just let him suffer," she spoke up, her voice much stronger than she had expected it to be.

Everyone else seemed to realize the same thing.

Rick pulled his Python from his holster and aimed it down at Dale, all the while struggling to keep his face from contorting with sorrow. He hesitated, staring down at their friend. Daryl walked around Caterina to join Rick at his side. He put his hand over the Python and forced it down slightly. He took the Python from Rick's slackened grip and knelt down, aiming the gun barrel at Dale, who stared up at Daryl almost pleadingly.

"Sorry, brother," Daryl muttered.

Dale struggled to smile, as if to assure him that it was all right. Daryl fired.


	26. Chapter 25

**Author's Note**

I'm not real sure about how this chapter turned out. I like where I went with it, but I'm just not sure about the writing. BUT I promised that I'd have this season finished by today, so I'm posting it anyway :) I hope you guys enjoy, despite the semi-crappy writing!

* * *

You would think that Caterina would be used to people dying. She couldn't even count just how many funerals she'd been to; how many grieving wives and mothers she'd had to comfort; how many husbands and fathers she had seen reduced to tears over freshly dug graves; how many children she had heard wailing; how many times she'd heard even younger children asking why someone was being lowered into the ground in a pine box. Actually, a majority of her memories were of attending funerals. The first time one that she'd attended was when she was ten, when the girl from next door died from being stabbed during a breakin. After that, it was one funeral after the other.

Still, every time that Caterina found herself standing over a new grave, it always felt like it was the first time.

This was the second time in a little over a week that they had lost someone to the terrors of this new world and, as Caterina stood over the three graves beneath the old oak tree, she realized just how tired of funerals she had become. All of these deaths—Amy, Jacqui, Jim, Sophia, Dale—were starting to take their toll on her. They were taking their toll on everyone.

"Dale could get under your skin," Rick spoke. "He sure got under mine. Because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt… That kind of honesty is rare, and brave. Whenever I made a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be lookin' back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read me. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us—the truth, who we really are.

"In the end, he was talkin' 'bout losin' our humanity. The best way to honor him is to make sure we don't lose it. We need to set aside all our differences and pull together. Stop feelin' sorry for ourselves, take control of our lives, our safety, our future… We haven't lost our humanity. We're gonna prove him wrong.

"From now on, we're gonna do it his way. _That_ is how we honor Dale."

* * *

In light of what happened with Dale, Hershel decided it would be best if everyone moved up into the house. That way, if any more walkers got onto their land, no one would have to worry about waking up with one of them in their tents. Instead, they'd be able to see them coming and would be able to regroup and retreat faster than they would if they stayed separated. Not to mention the extra protection that having actually walls would give them.

"Gonna be tight. Fifteen people in one house…" Rick muttered as he watched everyone bustling about, grabbing what they could from the camp and bringing it up to the house.

"Don't worry about that," Hershel said. "With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up…"

"With fifty heads of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing the damn dinner bell," Maggie said.

"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago."

"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors, facin' out toward the road," Rick started to instruct everyone. "We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines on both sides of the property. T-Dog, you take the perimeter round the house. Keep track of everyone comin' and goin'."

"What about standin' guard?" T-Dog wondered.

"I need you, Cat, and Daryl on double duty."

"Gotcha."

"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough we can survive there a few days if need be," Hershel offered as he grabbed a few containers from the picnic table.

"What about patrols?" Andrea asked.

"Let's get this area locked down first," Rick replied. "After that, Shane'll assign shifts while me and Cat take Randall offsite and cut him loose."

"We're back to that now?" Shane asked.

"It was the right plan first time 'round. Poor execution."

He huffed. "That's a slight understatement."

"You don't agree, but this is what's happenin'. Swallow it. Move on."

"You know that Dale's death and the prisoner—that's two separate things, right?" he asked, but Rick just looked at him as if he were challenging his authority. He shook his head. "You wanna take Cat as your wingman, be my guest."

"Thank you."

"You got it."

Caterina rolled her eyes at their behavior as she grabbed her crossbow and strapped it onto her back along with a backpack full of her stuff and her tent bag. Once she had everything secured, she hurried to join Rick and Hershel as they started up towards the house behind the rest of the group.

"I see why you're not takin' Shane with you," Hershel said. "Just know, I've got no more patience where he's concerned."

"He's turnin' over a new leaf," Rick assured him.

Caterina and Hershel both gave him a disbelieving look. While he probably wasn't aware of what Shane had done to Otis, it was obvious that he knew how unstable Shane was. And neither he nor Caterina believed that Shane would be so willing to "turn over a new leaf," especially if Rick was the one making him do it.

Rick just shrugged and changed the subject.

"I heard about your fallin' out with Andrea, why she has that bruise on her jaw."

"I warned her after she shot Daryl, if she stepped over the line again, I'd put her on chore duty," she said, not at all ashamed about what she'd done. Like she had told Andrea, the woman had been a thorn in her side since they left the CDC.

"Well, I don't wanna overstep your authority, so do you mind if I put her on watch while we're gone? She may be reckless, but she's good with a gun. And I'd feel more comfortable with her on duty rather than Shane."

Caterina nodded in understanding. She would feel more comfortable with that as well.

"Andrea," Rick called out, causing her to stop and wait for them to catch up with her. "While Cat and I are gone, help Hershel keep an eye on things around here."

"Me?" Andrea asked.

"Shane's got a way of lettin' things get outta hand, especially when he's all…torqued up."

"I think we're all a bit torqued up at this point."

"If you're stayin' here permanently," Hershel joined, "he's gotta understand that it's what Rick and I say, not whatever he wants."

"You've become close," Rick pointed out.

Andrea stopped, finally starting to see what they were getting at, though she didn't seem to be sure. "We talk…" she admitted slowly.

"Then you know he's not a bad guy. He's just his own worst enemy."

She stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. "You want me to babysit Shane?" she asked before she turned her gaze on Caterina. "Is this one of my 'chore duties'?"

"You can consider it that, yes," Caterina said.

"Look, I need to make sure every time I leave the farm, all hell doesn't break loose," Rick said.

"Then maybe you should stop leaving," Andrea retorted.

Rick just looked away.

Andrea glanced at Caterina, who was staring at her with a hard look. She swallowed slightly and continued up to the house.

"Will you keep an eye on things?" Rick called after her.

"Of course," Andrea agreed without looking back.

Rick glanced at Caterina and Hershel before he followed after her. The two left behind exchanged slightly worried looks before following him up to the house.

* * *

Caterina and Rick sat out on the porch, pouring over the map that Maggie had given them their first night on the farm, trying to find a good area to take Randal out to. They wanted to be sure that he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the farm, wherever they took him, but they also didn't want to travel too far from camp. There was always the chance that more walkers would come and attack the others while they were gone. It would be a repeat of what happened back at the oasis, and they didn't want that.

They looked up as Daryl approached them from the shed, apparently having just finished sealing off the loft there. Shane had told Rick that Carl had snuck up the yesterday to see Randal, and they wanted to keep him from being able to do it again. They also wanted to seal it off in case Randall managed to get free. With the loft sealed off and the shed door locked, he wouldn't be able to escape without alerting someone to what he was doing.

"Hey," Rick greeted him. "Wanna come see what we got?"

Daryl nodded and walked up onto the porch, over to where Caterina and Rick were. She jumped onto the railing of the porch to give him and Rick some room to look at the map.

"We were thinkin' of takin' him out to Senoia—hour there hour back, give or take," Rick explained as he outlined the rout that they would take. "We may lose the light, but we'll be halfway home by then."

"We won't have to worry about any more dissent in the ranks," Caterina pointed out.

"And this little pain in the ass will be a distant memory," Daryl added. "Good riddance."

Rick chuckled while Caterina rolled her eyes at Daryl's sullenness. She didn't think she had ever really heard a nice comment from him about anything, not even about his brother—at least not in a way that it was obvious. Maybe that should be her mission when she got back: Get Daryl to say something nice about someone outright.

"Carol's puttin' together some provisions for him, enough to last a few days," Rick continued.

The three of them looked out at the field as they heard a car pulling up behind them. Shane had been out building the lookout for the windmill. Now, it seemed that he was done and was coming back to camp.

"That thing you did last night…" Rick muttered as he turned back to Daryl.

"Ain't no reason you should do all the heavy lifting."

Rick nodded and looked up as Shane spun his car around to park close to where they were, but far enough away that he still wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying. "So you good with all this?" Rick asked, motioning between Caterina and himself. "Me takin' Cat out for a night?"

"As long as you have her back by ten."

"Now boys, there's no need to fight about who gets to spend more time with me. There's plenty of me to go around," Caterina cooed.

Rick grinned at her while Daryl just rolled his eyes at her childishness, although it was obvious that he was at least a little amused by it.

When Shane got out of the car and started approaching them, Caterina decided that it was time for her to leave. So she stood up from the railing and turned to Daryl. "Could you come help me get ready?" she asked.

Daryl nodded and followed her off the porch.

* * *

T-Dog ended up coming out to join them in getting Otis' truck ready to be taken out. Caterina had put the provisions that Carol prepared for Randall in an ice chest and placed it in the bed of the truck, along with a milk crate with a few gallons of water and a backpack of survival supplies.

"Is that everything?" Caterina asked.

"I think so," T-Dog said with a nod. "Oh, wait." He reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a Colt Official Police—Dale's personal handgun. He walked around the truck to where Daryl was standing and handed it to him. "You only have so many arrows."

"That Dale's gun?" Daryl asked as he took the gun from him.

"Yeah," he muttered before going around to close the tailgate.

He nodded appreciatively and tucked it behind his back in the waistband of his own jeans. "Wish I knew where the hell mine is."

"The one you keep with the bike?" Caterina asked.

"Yeah. You seen it?"

She shook her head. "Sorry. But I'll look around for it when we get back. My guess is, someone took it and forgot to return it."

"Ready?" Rick called out as he approached.

Caterina nodded and grabbed her crossbow from where she'd propped it in the back of the truck while she and Daryl had been putting everything away.

"I'll get the package," T-Dog offered.

"Thanks."

T-Dog nodded and walked off towards the shed.

Rick turned back to Caterina. "We sure we got everything?"

"Pretty sure. Unless we want to give Randall any weapons," she said, not so subtly hinting that she wanted to give the kid at least some kind of weapon so that he would have a fighting chance once he was on his own.

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe give him a knife or two."

Caterina grinned and disappeared into the house to get some knives from her personal stash in her backpack. She decided on giving him her Pro Series Skinner Fixed Blade knife and her Buck Zipper. They were pretty reliable, but she didn't use them very often, preferring the use of her Buck 119 and switchblade. She grabbed the holsters that went with them and walked back out of the house.

Just as Caterina stepped out on the porch, T-Dog came running up with a beleaguered look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked worriedly.

"It's Randall," T-Dog panted. "He's gone, man."

"What? How?" Caterina asked as she hurried down the steps to join Daryl and Rick.

"I dunno. The door was chained and locked."

The three by the truck exchanged looks before they took off towards the shed with T-Dog. Daryl threw open the door to the shed and stormed inside, Rick and Caterina at his heel. Randall was indeed missing. Caterina glanced around to see how he might've gotten out, but she didn't see any escape holes. So how had he gotten out? T-Dog had said that the shed had been locked.

They stepped back out of the shed at the same time that the rest of the group came running up to them, apparently having seen them run out to the shed.

"What's wrong?" Lori asked.

"Randall's missing," Caterina explained.

"Missing? How?"

"How long's he been gone?" Hershel asked at the same time Maggie asked, "What's goin' on?"

"It's hard to say," T-Dog said in response to Hershel's question.

Caterina and Rick walked back into the shed to look around one more time. There didn't seem to be anywhere that Randall might've been able to slip out through, and the handcuffs were stil hooked on the chain. Caterina noticed that there was blood on the handcuffs, however. Randall must've been trying to slip out of them and ended up cutting up his wrists.

"The cuffs are still hooked. He must've slipped 'em," Rick said as he walked back out.

"Is that possible?" Carol gasped.

"It is if you've got nothing to lose," Andrea replied.

Once Caterina had passed back out of the shed, Hershel closed the door. "The door was secured from the outside," Hershel pointed out, motioning to the lock.

"There wasn't anywhere else that he could've gotten out from," Caterina said.

"Rick! Rick!"

Everyone looked up at the sound of Shane's voice calling from the trees. He came stumbling out of the bushes, nose busted with blood trickling down his chin. It looked like someone had gotten him pretty good.

"What happened?" Lori called back.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!"

"Are you okay?" Carl asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. The little bastard just snuck up on me. Clocked me in the face."

Rick and Caterina exchanged quick looks. It seemed that the pieces were falling in place in both of their heads. The shed had been locked from the outside with a combination lock, which was still intact. Even if Randall had managed to slip his cuffs, there was no way that he would have made it out of the shed without breaking the door down. Not to mention that Daryl had sealed off the loft. The only way Randall could've gotten out was if someone opened the door for him.

Rick turned to the group. "All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Cat, Glenn Daryl, come with us."

"T, I'm gonna need that gun," Shane said, nodding at T-Dog.

"Just let him go," Carol suggested. "That was the plan, wasn't it? To just let him go?"

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun," Rick said.

T-Dog handed over his handgun to Shane, who turned as soon as he had it and started back to the tree line with Rick, Daryl, and Glenn following right behind him, each of them with their own weapons.

"Don't go out there! Y'all know what can happen!" Carol pleaded.

"Get everybody back in the house," Rick called back over his shoulder. "Lock all the doors and stay put!"

"We'll be back soon," Caterina promised Carol before she turned and hurried to join the men.

* * *

Shane lead them about a mile out. So far, Caterina hadn't been able to pick up on any sort of trail other than the short one from where Shane had come out. The further out they went, the tenser Caterina became. This whole thing was just screaming "trap!" But she had to wonder for who.

"I saw him head up through the trees that way before I blacked out," Shane informed them as he pointed to the east. "I'm not sure how long."

"He couldn't have gotten far," Rick said. "He's hobbled, exhausted…"

"And armed," Glenn added.

"So are we," he reminded him before he turned to Daryl. "Can you track him?"

"No, I don't see nothin'," Daryl said as he examined the area around them.

"Hey, look, there ain't no use in trackin' him, okay? He went that way," Shane insisted. "We just need to pair up. We spread out. We just chase him down. That's it."

"The kid weighs a buck twenty-five soakin' wet. You tryin' tell us he got the jump on you?" Daryl asked as he turned to face Shane. There was a hint of amusement in his voice as well as doubt. Obviously, he didn't believe him either.

"I say a rock pretty much evens those odds, wouldn't you?" Shane retorted smoothly.

"Okay, all right, knock it off," Rick scolded them. He nodded to Daryl. "You, Cat, and Glenn start headin' up the right flank. Me and Shane'll take the left."

"Wouldn't it be quicker if Cat went straight instead? Cover more ground?"

"Not a chance in hell," Daryl snapped.

"Daryl's right. I'll be safer if she stays with him and Glenn," Rick agreed.

Shane seemed like he wanted to argue more, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, especially when he saw the way that Caterina was eyeing him now. So this _was_ a trap for her as well as Rick. Too bad Rick was a step ahead of him.

"Are you sure you won't want me coming with you and Shane?" Caterina asked.

"I'm sure," Rick said with a bit more weight in his words than should have been there.

Caterina nodded, understanding what he was saying. He knew that this was probably just a ploy to get him away from camp, and he was going to go with it.

"Remember, Randall's not the only threat out there. Keep an eye out for each other."

Everyone nodded and went off into their separate perimeters.

* * *

They ended up staying out well into the night looking for any sign of Randall. Caterina knew it was pretty much pointless. Not only was there no trail to go on, but she was pretty sure Randall was probably dead by now, either by Shane's hands or a walker's. But she didn't say anything. She was certain that Daryl knew the truth and was just acting like he didn't, but it was obvious that Glenn had no idea. So she decided it was best if he was left to think Randall had escaped on his own rather than knowing that it was Shane that set him loose.

Daryl sighed heavily and stopped. "This is pointless," he grunted. He nodded to Glenn. "Gimme a light."

Glenn pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and handed it to Daryl. He switched it on and shined it on the ground, trying to find something that would lead them in the right direction. He lowered it after a moment and sighed irritably.

"C'mon."

Caterina and Glenn followed as he started off again.

Daryl ended up leading them back to where Rick had first set them off in their separate groups, where Shane had said that he'd seen Randall running towards the east.

"We're just back to square one," Glenn groaned.

"If you're gonna do a thing, you might as well do it right," Daryl said. He used Glenn's flashlight to check the ground more thoroughly. "Two sets of tracks right here," he said after a moment. "Shane must've followed him a lot longer than he said." He moved forward a bit before moving the light on to the tree in front of him. "There's fresh blood on this tree."

Caterina thought back to Shane's busted nose. After doing whatever he did, he must've rammed into the tree to make it look like Randall had gotten the jump on him.

"There's more tracks. Looks like they're walkin' in tandem."

"Tandem? That's a big word," Caterina teased.

"Shut up, Caterina," Daryl sneered, knowing how much she disliked being called that.

"Only if you make me, _Darylina_."

He glared back over his shoulder, and Caterina just smiled innocently back at him.

Glenn looked between them, amused and slightly grossed out at the same time. Everyone knew that they were an item, but they didn't often show any sort of affection for each other when anyone else was around, so it was weird seeing them flirt now. Although, it wasn't exactly typical flirting. But Glenn wasn't sure if Daryl was capable of flirting normally.

"Um, do you guys mind not flirting in front of me please?" Glenn decided to say.

"We're not flirting," Daryl snapped.

"He's right," Caterina agreed, still wearing that innocent smile. "If we were flirting, he would've called me—"

"Hold up," Daryl muttered distractedly, conveniently cutting her off before she could finish what she was going to say. He shined the flashlight on an area on the ground where it looked like something had fallen. "There was a little dust-up right here."

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked.

"I mean, sumthin' went down."

"This is getting weird…" he muttered.

Daryl moved the light further up, shining it ahead to see where the trail led. "Had a little trouble," he said before holding the light on a strip of cloth on the ground.

Caterina moved forward and picked up the cloth. Her brow furrowed when she recognized it as the blindfold that Randall had on while he'd been in the shed. She opened her mouth to convey this to the others when there was a loud rustling from behind them. Daryl quickly clicked off the flashlight, and the three of them darted behind some nearby trees.

They stayed frozen for a moment, listening to the sound of shuffling footsteps. Caterina peeked around the girth of the tree that she stood behind to try to see who it was. She frowned slightly when she spotted the silhouette of a teenage boy stumbling around. His figure looked familiar—tall and lanky with a tear in one of its pant legs.

She ducked back behind her tree as the figure started moving towards them. She silently moved her crossbow to her shoulder so that she could grab her buck knife, deciding it would be easier to use it than the crossbow.

Before she even had the chance to use it, however, Glenn stepped out from behind his tree, machete poised. He clicked on the flashlight so that he could see where to aim, only to freeze when he recognized the walker's face. It was Randall

The walker growled hungrily as it grabbed Glenn. Daryl and Caterina jumped out then, drawing the walker's attention to them. It tossed Glenn to the ground and took an unsteady step towards Daryl. He fired an arrow at the walker, but it missed. It was harder to aim without any light and the walker was moving much too fast. He raised his crossbow to fend it off when it got too close, and Caterina took the time to get behind it. She winced at the loud crunch beneath her feet as she accidentally stepped on a twig. The walker turned and started towards her now, snarling. It had only managed to take two steps, however, before Glenn tackled it to the ground. He rolled the walker on to its back and stabbed his Pro Machete through the top of its head.

Everyone climbed back on to their feet, panting as they struggled to collect themselves.

Daryl reached out and patted Glenn on the stomach. "Nice."

While he went to retrieve his arrow that he had misfired and Glenn pulled his machete from the walker's head, Caterina grabbed the flashlight from where Glenn had dropped it. She moved to the other side of the walker and shined the light down on the corpse, giving it a brief once-over. She paused as she moved the light to its neck. It was bent at a weird angle.

"Daryl?" Caterina called.

"What's up?" he replied as he walked up behind her.

"His neck's broken."

Daryl frowned and strapped his crossbow to his back before taking the flashlight from Caterina. He knelt down and searched the front of the corpse for any signs of injury apart from the neck. When he didn't find anything out of the ordinary, he rolled the body over on to its back. He pulled up the shirt to see if he could find any bites or scratches only to come up empty again.

"He's got no bites," Daryl said as he took a brief look at the walker's legs.

"Yeah, none you can see," Glenn muttered.

"No, I'm tellin' ya, he died from this," he argued, motioning to the broken neck.

"How's that possible?"

"Beats me," Caterina said, just as surprised as the others two. She thought people only turned if they were bitten by another walker, that what caused the fever was what caused the brainstem to reanimate. But Randall hadn't been bitten. So what caused him to turn?

* * *

After finding Randall, they decided to go back up to the house. The others would want to know what they'd found. And Caterina was anxious to know if Rick was okay. She became even more so when they heard a gunshot while they were walking through Hershel's yard. She worried that Shane had finally snapped and shot Rick. But she decided to ignore the shot until Shane came back without Rick and she knew for sure that he had shot him. For all she knew, it could've been the other way around.

The three of them walked into the house where the others were waiting for them.

As soon as they passed into the living room, Caterina glanced around for Rick or Shane. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, she didn't see either of them.

"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked, having noticed the same thing.

"No," Lori answered.

"We heard a shot."

"Maybe they found Randall."

Daryl shook his head. "We found him."

"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asked.

"He's a walker."

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel questioned.

"No, the weird thing is, he wasn't bit," Glenn replied.

"His neck was broken," Caterina expounded.

"So he fought back," Patricia offered.

"The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other," Daryl informed them. "And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. No, they were together."

Lori stood up and approached him and Caterina. "Would you please get back out there and find Rick and Shane, and find out what on Earth is going on?" she pleaded.

"You got it."

"Thank you."

Daryl and Caterina walked back out of the house, with Glenn and Andrea following right behind them. If she wasn't so worried, Caterina would've told Andrea to go straight back into the house, but she was much too anxious to care about her at the moment.

Caterina was about to follow Daryl down the porch steps when she spotted something from the corner of her eye. She turned to see what it was, and her heart stilled. The largest walker herd that she'd ever seen was making its way towards the barn from the line of trees at the back of Hershel's property.

She reached out blindly and grabbed Daryl's arm, stopping him before he could leave the porch. He stopped to look at her curiously, but she didn't turn her gaze away from the herd. He must've seen the naked fear on her face, because he turned slowly to see what she was staring at.

"Holy shit…" Daryl muttered.

Andrea and Glenn turned as well only to freeze when they saw what had their attention.

"Get the others," Caterina ordered after taking a moment to find her voice.

Andrea nodded and ran back into the house, returning a moment later with the rest of the group. They all gathered outside to see what the commotion was about. The women gasped while the men just seemed to freeze. Hershel pushed his way to the front of the group, and Lori ran back into the house, presumably to find Carl.

"Patricia, kill the lights," Hershel instructed calmly.

"I'll get the guns," Andrea said before turning and following Patricia back into the house.

"Maybe they're just passing, like the herd on the highway," Glenn offered hopefully. "Should we just go back inside?"

"Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about," Daryl said. "A herd that size would ripe the house down."

"Daryl's right," Caterina agreed. "If we go inside and they decide to wander into the house, we'd all be dead meat."

"Carl's gone," Lori gasped as she ran back on to the porch.

Caterina turned quickly. "What?"

"H-He was upstairs. I can't find him anywhere."

"Maybe he's hiding," Glenn said.

"He's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy."

"We're not," Carol assured her, ushering her back to the house. "We're gonna look again. We're gonna find him."

Glenn put his hand to his head, muttering, "Oh my God…"

Andrea came back out with Rick's duffel bag. She made her way through the front of the group, where she could set the bag down and start rifling through it. Maggie stepped up to help her to distribute the guns. Caterina took one of her handguns from the back, a CZ-75, and tucked it into her sock, seeing as she had no other place to put it.

"Maggie…" Glenn sputtered as he watched Maggie expertly handling one of their shotguns.

"You grow up country, you pick up a thing or two," Maggie brushed him off.

"I got the number," Daryl said. "It's no use."

"You can go if you want," Hershel said.

"You gonna take 'em all on?"

"We have guns. We have cars."

"Kill as many as we can, and we'll use the cars to lead the rest of them off of the farm," Andrea said.

"Are you sure?" Daryl asked.

"This is my farm," Hershel said. "I'll die here."

Daryl and Caterina exchanged slightly impressed looks before they nodded.

"All right," Daryl said. "It's as good a night as any."

He and Caterina vaulted over the porch railings and ran to where Daryl had parked his motor-bike. While he fixed his crossbow to one of the side pouches, Caterina checked both of her hand guns for rounds. Luckily, she'd filled both magazines just the other day, so they were both full. Daryl started the bike's engine and revved it a few times just to get it going. Caterina strapped her crossbow to her back and tucked her CZ back into her sock before climbing on to the back of the bike, wrapping one arm around Daryl's waist.

They led the way out into the fields, Glenn and Maggie following in Shane's Hyundai, Andrea and T-Dog in Otis' truck, and Jimmy in the RV. Hershel had decided to stay by the house and protect it while the women were still inside, looking for Carl.

Daryl pulled up next to the fence, and he and Caterina started firing at the walkers around the barn while Jimmy pulled the RV in front of the opening to keep any walkers from getting through. The rest of the group started driving up and down the length of the fence, shooting as many of the walkers as they could.

Caterina glanced over at the barn. It had somehow caught fire, attracting a few of the walkers to it. She assumed that it had been Rick or Shane's doing (she hoped that it was Rick). "Rick or Shane must've stared that fire!" she shouted over the sound of gunfire. "Someone needs to go see if they can't get them out!"

"I got it!" Daryl shouted back. After firing one more rounds he settled back down in to the seat and revved the engine once before he pulled up next to the window that Jimmy was firing from. "Yo!" he shouted. "It must've been Rick or Shane who started that fire. Maybe they're tryin' to get out the back! Why don't you circle round?"

"Got it!" Jimmy called back before disappearing into the RV. It roared to life a moment later and started crawling down to the barn.

Caterina and Daryl immediately returned to their work of trying to take out as many walkers as they could from the safety of Daryl's bike. They ended up driving up and down the length of the fence twice before Caterina decided that it was pointless. There were far too many walkers and not enough bullets. Regardless of what Hershel wanted, there was no way that they were going to defend the farmhouse.

"There's no way we can keep this organized!" Caterina shouted again. "We're going to have to retreat!"

Daryl nodded and drove off of the farm.

They stopped again once they were far enough away from the farm and the walkers. Daryl killed the bike's engine, and the two of them stared somberly at the burning farm. They had no idea what had happened to the others, just that Otis's truck and Shane's Hyundai had disappeared. Caterina assumed that they had deemed it a lost cause just as they had and had escaped before they got overrun.

The two whipped around when they heard screaming from behind them.

"That's Carol," Caterina said, easily able to recognize the scream.

Daryl started his bike again but, before he could drive off towards the sound of Carol's screams, Caterina climbed off of the bike. He paused at the sudden loss of her arms around his waist and looked back at her inquiringly.

Caterina waved him off. "Get going!"

"What? Are you crazy?" Daryl snapped.

"Your bike isn't going to carry all three of us, Daryl."

He stared at her, realizing the same thing. While it was pretty roomy with just the two of them, there was not nearly enough room for a third person.

"Go on," Caterina said. "Get Carol out of here."

"And leave you behind?" he scoffed.

"Daryl, please. I'll be all right on my own."

He still seemed hesitant.

Caterina looked towards the farmhouse. She could barely see Carol running towards them, a small horde of walkers on her tail. Caterina turned back to Daryl, thinking about how she was going to get him to save Carol and leave her.

"Get Carol and drive up to the highway where we lost Sophia. I'll meet you there." When Daryl opened his mouth to argue again, she nodded to the handgun clutched in her hand. "I still have a few rounds in here, and sixteen more in my CZ. If I run low, I still have my arrows."

Daryl seemed a bit less hesitant now.

"I promise, I'll find you later. Just go. Please."

He stared at her for a long moment before finally nodding. But instead of driving off like she'd expected, Daryl reached out and drew her closer. He moved his hand up to the side of her face, and he pulled her down to his level and kissed her fervently. She returned it with just as much passion, focusing on the feeling of his lips pressed against hers, trying to commit it to memory.

Daryl pulled away after what felt like too little of time.

"You'd best keep to that promise," he said.

Caterina nodded with her usual grin.

She stepped back and watched as Daryl sped off to Carol's rescue. Caterina's smile fell as soon as he was gone, replaced with a mournful expression. She turned and leapt over a nearby fence before taking off towards the trees. The walkers had come from the opposite side of the acres, so she didn't have to worry about running into any more herds that way. The problem was…the direction that they had come from was the direction that the highway was in. There was no way that she would make it up there, at least until they had cleared out.

She heard Daryl's bike revving behind her, moving toward the highway, and she stopped at the tree line to look back. She watched as Daryl drove down the road with Carol.

"I'm sorry, Daryl…"

She turned and disappeared into the forest.

* * *

**Daryl's Point of View**

Daryl was silent as he drove through the dirt roads towards the highway, figuring it was where the others were going to meet up, and where he was going to find Caterina. He hated how she made him leave her like that, but he knew he wasn't going to change her mind. Besides, she'd been right. There was no way that he would've been able to get all three of them on his bike.

Still, he wished that he hadn't had to leave behind the woman that he loved.

Yes, he loved her. God help him, he loved her. He hadn't even realized it until a few days ago, when the two of them had been sitting around his camp, talking about their families. That was where she'd gotten the idea to start calling him "Darylina" when she wanted to tease him. And he hadn't even had the chance to tell her how he felt before everything had gone to shit—again. Now, if he lost that chance because she'd sacrificed herself so that he could save Carol…

His throat constricted at the thought of Caterina falling to that horde of walkers.

No, he couldn't think like that. She was strong. If anyone was going to escape, it was going to be her. When they got to the highway, she was going to be there waiting with that stupid, cocky grin on her face, and he was going to go straight up to her, kiss her, and tell her he loved her.

* * *

It was already light by the time Daryl finally made it safely to the highway. He had managed to find Glenn and T-Dog along the way, and he had somehow ended up playing the leader.

When they made it to the pileup that they had lost Sophia at, he saw Rick, his boy, and Hershel gathered by Hershel's van. He slowed down and cut through the grass separating the highways. He parked behind an overturn car and shut off his bike.

Rick walked up to him, and the two of them slapped hands.

Glenn pulled up a bit further down, and Maggie shot out of the car and ran straight to Hershel.

Lori stepped out of the truck once T-Dog had pulled up. "Oh, thank God!" she cried as she ran forward to meet her son, who'd bolted towards her as soon as he saw her.

Rick smiled and hurried to join in on the group hug, kissing his wife on the cheek.

Beth ran up to Maggie and her father and hugged them.

"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick asked Daryl.

"Well, this guy's tail lights were zigzagging all over the road. Figured he had to be Asian, drivin' like that," Daryl said, nodding to Glenn.

"Good one," Glenn chuckled.

Daryl looked around, expecting to see Caterina there already. When he didn't see her, his blood immediately turned cold. It shouldn't have taken her so long to get up to the highway, even if she had been on foot. She had gotten a head start. He shook away the foreboding feeling that was creeping up in his stomach. He couldn't know that she wasn't still coming. She might've just had to alter her course a bit to get there safely.

"Where's the rest of us?" Carol wondered.

"We're the only ones who made it so far," Rick said.

"Shane?" Lori asked hopefully.

Rick shook his head with a tense look on his face.

"Andrea?" Glenn asked.

"She saved me," Carol said. "Then I lost her."

"We saw her go down," T-Dog chimed in.

"Patricia?" Hershel asked.

"They got her too," Beth sobbed. "Took her right in front of him. I was…I was holdin' on to her daddy. She just—"

Hershel pulled his daughter into his side comfortingly.

"What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?"

"He was in the RV. It got overrun," Rick said.

Beth gave another sob before turning to cry into her father's chest.

"You definitely saw Andrea?" Carol asked.

"There were walkers everywhere," Lori said.

"Did you see her?" she repeated forcefully.

No one said anything.

Rick looked around at everyone, and it finally seemed to click that someone else was missing of the group, someone important. He looked at Daryl. "Where's Cat?"

Daryl's jaw tensed. "She made me leave her behind, so I could get Carol out of there."

"What?" Carol gasped.

"You just left her?" Lori accused.

"It ain't like she gave me a choice," Daryl snapped defensively. "She refused to go."

Everyone was silent as they took this in. Of all the people to have gotten left behind, it really did not surprise any of them that it was Caterina. She was always risking herself for the others. But it was hard for them to accept that she was gone. She'd become such an important member of the group. None of them had ever thought that they would ending up losing her, especially not so soon. They had thought that she would be with them until the end.

Daryl looked around at everyone, seeing the despair in their eyes. He scoffed. "Don't you start on thinkin' she's dead or sumthin'."

"Daryl—" Rick started.

"She ain't dead!" he barked. "She ran off into the forest. Said she'd make her way up here."

"That area of the forest is where they came from," T-Dog pointed out. "If she went out there on her own, there's no way she's gonna make it."

"What do you know about it, huh?" he snapped, taking a threatening step towards T-Dog, only for Rick to step out in front of him, keeping him from getting any closer. He just talked around him. "That girl's tougher than any of us here. Ain't even a gang of walkers is enough to take her down."

"A gang of walkers is enough to take anyone down," Rick argued.

Daryl looked at Rick in disbelief. "You're gonna give up on her just like that? After everything she's done for you?"

"I don't like this any more than you do, believe me."

Daryl scoffed and turned away from him.

"But we've gotta be logical about this. Even if it's Cat, there's no way she would survive if she ran into another horde on her own. She doesn't have near enough ammunition on her, and she has nowhere to run to retreat to when things get bad." He paused to soften his voice. "There's nothin' we can do. I'm sorry, Daryl."

And he really was. He was just as upset about the situation as Daryl was. After all, Caterina had been on his side since the beginning. She was the first person that he'd met after leaving Morgan and Duane. She had saved his life countless times, and they had become quick friends. He even thought of her like a sister. The thought of her being taken down by walkers was almost enough to make him cry. But he had to stay strong, for the group. He couldn't let Caterina's death throw him like it had Daryl.

But it seemed that Daryl wasn't about to let himself believe that Caterina was dead. Instead, he just got angrier.

He got in Rick's face, glaring angrily. "She ain't dead," he growled. "She promised she'd be here, and she will be."

"Look, even if she did somehow make it, we can't stay here waitin' for her," T-Dog pointed out.

"T-Dog's right," Rick said, welcoming the chance to steer the subject away from Caterina. "We've gotta keep movin'. There have been walkers crawling all over here."

"I say head east."

Rick nodded and stepped away from Daryl, looking at the others. "Stay off the main roads."

Everyone started to get back into their respective vehicles, but Daryl didn't move.

Rick placed his hand on Daryl's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. "If Caterina does end up making it here, once she sees we're gone, she'll move on. We'll have a better chance of findin' her once she gets away from the farm."

Daryl stared at him for a long moment before nodding. He was right. If they stayed there, they ran the risk of getting caught in another horde. Caterina would make it there before leaving to find someplace to lay low until they found her. And they _would_ find her. He wouldn't rest until they did. Even if he had to search for the next year, he would find her. And it wasn't going to end up being like Sophia. He was going to find her _alive_. And, once he did, he was going to kick her ass.

* * *

**Author's Note**

So you guys probably hate me right now. I admit, I'm a horrible person when it comes to the fates of my OC characters. But I felt like this definitely would've happened here if the writes of The Walking Dead had a character like Caterina in the show. I promise, it's not the end of Cat and Daryl's time together. They'll definitely be reunited again!

I hope you guys continue to read the story, even though you're probably screaming at your screens right now, saying how cruel I am :).


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